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The 
Book  of  the  Princes  of  Wales 

Heirs  to  the  Crown  of  England 


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April " 

Photogravure  from  a  drawing  by  E.  Grasset 


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Sie  JJoofe  of  rtje 
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BY 


JOHN  ^ORAN,   LL.D. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

FRANCIS   A.    NICCOLLS   &   CO. 

BOSTON 


Edition  de  luxe. 

Limiied  io  One  Thousand  Copies. 
Mo.  ...3.7.8 


REQ.  OF  SSRS 

GIF! 


•    •  •  •  ■••    •  •••••*.  •»« 


.  3 
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TO    MY   GODSON 

J^arolt)  J^oltjm  MJite 

THESE    BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES   OF 

THE   PRINCES   OF   WALES 

HEIRS  -  APPARENT   OF  ENGLAND 

ARE   AFFECTIONATELY   INSCRIBED  — 

TO   HIM 

THE  HEIR  -  APPARENT  OF  GOOD   EXAMPLE 

AND    MANY   VIRTUES  — 

BY  THE  AUTHOR 


M755Q57 


Contents 


CHAPTER 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 


VI. 
VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 
XIII. 
XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 
XVII. 

XVIII. 


Wales  and  England  .  .  i  .  .  3 
Edward  of  Caernarvon  ...  .14 
Edward  of   Caernarvon  —  The  History 

OF  A  Year 42 

Edward  of  Caernarvon  —  His  Char- 
acter AS  Developed  in  His  Letters  .  65 
Edward  of  Windsor,    Second   Prince  of 

Wales 114 

Edward     of     Woodstock,     the     Black 

Prince 145 

Richard  of    Bordeaux        ....  190 

Henry  of   Monmouth  (Lancaster)    .        .  207 

Edward  of  Westminster  (Lancaster)     .  246 

Edward  of  the  Sanctuary  (York)  .         .  285 

Edward  of  Middleham  (York)  .        .         .  303 

The  Brother  -  Princes  of  Wales  (Tudor)  313 

The  Brother-  Princes  of  Wales  (Stuart)  359 

Charles  of  St.  James's  ....  422 
Princes    of    Wales    of    the    House    of 

Hanover 459 

Frederick  Louis  of  Hanover  .  .  .491 
George  William  Frederick,  of  Norfolk 

House 511 

George     Augustus     Frederick    of     St. 

James's 528 


List   of  Illustrations 


"  She   reached    the    capital    on    the    first   of 

Apbai.^'  {See  page  128)    ....        Frontispiece 
"  He   was   an    evil   friend   and    counsellor   to 

the  prince  " 31 

The  Black  Prince  on  the  Field  of  Najera  .  178 
"  Placed  upon  a  cushion  in  his  sight  "  .  .  243 
"  To  murder  the  sons   of   his   brother  in  the 

Tower  " 306 


The  Book  of  the  Princes  of  Wales. 


Book  I. 

Princes  of  Wales  of  the 
House  of  Plantagenet 


The  Book  of 
The   Princes  of  Wales 


» 1  t  1 
1  ■>    ■> 


CHAPTERS 

>  > 

WALES    AND  TENCft-'ANiy  • 


*       '     3 

'»o»     \' 


When  the  triumph  of  the  Saxon  invaders  of  Britain 
was  consolidated  by  the  death  of  the  great  Cadwalla- 
der,  ex-British  king,  and  monkish  recluse  at  Rome, 
a  prophecy  went  forth  among  the  people  of  the  land 
that  they  would  never  again  recover  their  freedom 
until  the  bones  of  the  "benign  monarch"  were  re- 
stored to  the  soil  over  which  he  once  reigned. 

Awaiting  this  event,  tribe  after  tribe,  and  people 
after  people,  sunk  in  slavery  to  the  Saxon.  Cymru 
alone,  that  district  which  the  invaders  contemptuously 
named  Wales  —  indicative  of  its  being  a  strange  or 
unknown  land  to  them  —  became  the  fortress  within 
whose  limits  there  assembled  the  stout  hearts  who 
refused  to  despair  of  their  country.  A  nation  was 
there  organised,  the  chiefs  of  which,  occasionally 
styled  "kings,"  were  more  generally  known  as 
"princes." 

In  the  last  quarter  of  the  ninth  century,  the  prin- 
3 


4  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

cipality,  which  had  been  hitherto  governed  by  one 
sovereign  lord,  was  divided  between  three  brothers, 
in  accordance  with  the  will  of  their  father,  Roderic 
the  Second.  In  carrying  out  this  division,  an  agree- 
ment was  made  that  throughout  all  coming  time  the 
Prince  of  Gwyned,  or  North  Wales,  should  enjoy  a 
precedence  of  dignity  and  authority  over  his  princely 
brothers  and  cousins  who  ruled  in  South  Wales,  and 
over  the  turbulent  but  brave  tribes  settled  in  Powis 
land. 

This  division  did  not  tend  to  strengthen  the  gov- 
emm«int  of  Wa;Hs.  Within  little  more  than  half  a 
centuiy,  the,  princes  paid  tribute  of  money  to  Athel- 
•staii,' '  the  English  iBOVereign ;  and  subsequently  they 
furnished  tribute  of  wolves  to  Edgar,  monarch  of 
England.  The  rod  of  the  Saxon  stranger  was  hard 
to  bear,  but  the  finger  of  the  Norman  weighed 
heavier  still  on  the  loins  of  the  Welshmen  ;  and  in 
the  fact  that,  about  the  opening  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, Griffith  ap  Conan  rendered  homage  to  William 
the  Conqueror,  for  all  Wales,  we  recognise  a  progress 
of  humiliation  hitherto  unattained. 

Further  progress  in  a  similar  direction  had  yet, 
however,  to  be  made.  The  Princes  of  Wales  were 
not  remarkable  for  peace  or  fair  dealing  amongst 
themselves.  They  did  not  respect  each  other's  land- 
marks, and  in  mutual  negotiations  they  disregarded 
truth  to  an  extent  which  has  never  been  equalled  in 
a  Christian  country  —  till  recently,  perhaps,  by  gov- 
ernments on  the  continent  of  Europe.  Amid  the 
anarchy  which  prevailed,  one  voice  was  ultimately 
heard,  and  one  authority  acknowledged,  in  the  person 
of  Llewellyn  III.,  whose  claim  to  be  sovereign  ruler 


WALES  AND  ENGLAND  5 

was  not  in  itself  clearly  legitimate,  but  was  rendered 
indisputable  by  the  sanction  of  the  people.  The 
accession  of  Llewellyn  dates  from  1246. 

It  was  the  not  unreasonable  custom  of  the  English 
kings  to  take  advantage  of  the  anarchy  which  dis- 
tracted the  Welsh,  in  order  to  punish  them  for  their 
arrogance  toward,  and  their  aggressions  against,  Eng- 
land. In  the  bloody  encounters  which  ensued,  the 
sons  of  the  Britons  frequently  inflicted  terrible  de- 
feats on  the  lieutenants  of  the  Anglo-Norman  kings, 
and  spread  desolation  far  within  the  frontier  of  the 
English  Marches.  There  is  a  passage  in  Fuller  sin- 
gularly illustrative  of  the  difficulties  experienced  by 
the  English  in  their  attempted  conquest  of  Wales. 
It  is  illustrative,  too,  of  the  sufferings  they  endured, 
and  of  the  antiquity  of  our  evil  system  of  neglect  for 
the  well-being  of  the  poor  but  brave  fellows  who 
fight  our  battles.  **  I  am  much  affected,"  says  Fuller, 
"with  the  ingenuity  of  an  English  nobleman  who, 
following  the  camp  of  King  Henry  III.  in  these 
parts  (Caernarvonshire),  wrote  home  to  his  friends, 
about  the  end  of  September,  1245,  the  naked  truth, 
indeed,  as  followeth  :  *  We  lie  in  our  tents,  watching, 
fasting,  praying,  and  freezing.  We  watch,  for  fear 
of  the  Welshmen,  who  are  wont  to  invade  us  in  the 
night ;  we  fast,  for  want  of  meat,  for  the  halfpenny 
loaf  is  worth  fivepence ;  we  pray  to  God  to  send  us 
home  speedily ;  and  we  freeze,  for  want  of  winter 
garments,  having  nothing  but  thin  linen  between  us 
and  the  wind.' " 

When  the  English  sovereigns  were  sorely  pressed 
within  their  own  border  by  rebels,  noble  or  simple, 
both  equally  dangerous,  the  Princes  of  Wales  testified 


6  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  liveliest  alacrity  in  effecting  diversions  in  favour 
of  the  latter,  or  in  rendering  them  aid  more  immedir 
ate.  In  this  and  other  hostile  ways,  the  Welsh  had 
become  intolerable  as  neighbours  to  our  English  fore- 
fathers; and  thereupon  an  internecine  war  ensued 
which  terminated  fatally  to  the  Welsh  patriots.  In 
1268,  Llewellyn  was  reduced  to  such  straits  that  he 
was  compelled  to  accept  the  terms  which  Henry  III. 
chose  to  dictate.  The  sum  of  these  terms  was,  that 
the  vanquished  chieftain  should  pay  a  heavy  indemnity 
to  the  victor;  that  though  his  nobles  should  do 
homage  to  him  for  their  estates,  he  should  perform 
the  same  service  to  the  King  of  England  for  the 
whole  land,  save  one  baronial  property,  the  owner  of 
which  was  to  acknowledge  the  English  monarch  for 
his  liege  lord.  Therewith,  Llewellyn  was  to  enjoy 
the  now  barren  title  of  "Prince  of  Wales." 

Such  as  it  was,  he  enjoyed  it  in  comparative  tran- 
quillity till  the  death  of  Henry,  and  the  accession  of 
that  sovereign's  son  Edward,  "first  of  the  name." 
Soon  after  this  latter  event  he  received  evidence  that 
there  was  one  man,  at  least,  in  London,  by  whom  he 
was  not  forgotten ;  that  person  was  Robert  Bumel,  a 
Shropshire  man,  at  whose  paternal  house  at  Acton  Bur- 
nel  the  cry  of  the  coming  of  the  Welsh  had  been  heard 
more  than  once.  Burnel  was  at  this  period  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells,  and  Chancellor  of  England.  The  testi- 
mony of  his  having  held  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  his 
official,  rather  than  affectionate  memory,  was  for- 
warded to  Llewellyn  in  the  shape  of  a  courteous,  yet 
stringent  summons,  to  repair  to  London,  and  pay 
homage  to  the  new  king,  according  to  the  terms  of 
his  agreement  with  Henry. 


WALES  AND  ENGLAND  ^ 

In  this  summons,  the  Welsh  chieftain  saw  "  a  few 
of  the  unpleasant'st  words  that  ever  blotted  paper." 
He  knew  that  Burnel  had  the  English  conquest  and 
settlement  of  Wales  at  heart,  and  that  it  was  by  fol- 
lowing the  counsels  of  the  same  statesman  that  a 
triumph  had  been  achieved  over  Llewellyn's  friend 
and  ally,  Simon  de  Montfort.  The  Prince  of  Wales 
was  in  a  grievous  state.  He  addressed  a  supplication 
to  the  episcopal  heads  of  the  Church  assembled  in 
convocation  at  the  Temple,  begging  to  be  excused, 
on  the  ground  that  "the  place  was  not  safe,  and 
indifferent  for  him  to  appear  at."  His  request  was 
not  granted ;  and  then  he  explained,  with  a  touch  of 
humour  in  the  explanation,  that  he  was  willing  to 
repair  to  Westminster,  if,  meanwhile,  his  old  neigh- 
bour the  chancellor  would  betake  himself  to  Snowdon, 
to  remain  as  a  hostage  there  for  Llewellyn's  safe 
return ! 

What  could  not  be  effected  by  the  threats  of  an 
angry  chancellor,  or  the  official  cajolery  of  a  king, 
was  accomplished  by,  or  for  the  sake  of,  a  beauty  in 
distress.  Llewellyn  was  true  knight  to  his  love,  if 
false  to  his  liege. 

During  the  period  of  his  connection  with  the  sedi- 
tious or  patriotic  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leices- 
ter, he  had  been  promised  the  hand  of  that  earl's 
daughter,  Eleanor.  What  opportunities  the  prince 
had  possessed  of  seeing  the  young  lady,  I  know  not, 
but  the  story  descends  to  us  with  the  assurance  of 
his  deep  attachment  to  the  daughter  of  that  doughty 
noble.  When  the  fortunes  of  De  Montfort  had  suf- 
fered irretrievable  shipwreck,  Eleanor  had  accom- 
panied her  mother  to  Montargis,  a  royally  endowed 


8  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

nunnery  in  France.  At  a  period  when  peace  seemed 
likely  to  be  a  guest  for  a  season  at  the  hearth  of  the 
prince,  he  had  besought  Lady  Leicester  to  grant  him 
the  hand  of  his  betrothed  bride.  The  widow  of 
Simon  thought  the  match  no  ill  one  for  the  daughter 
of  a  dishonoured  lord,  and  forthwith  despatched  her 
to  Wales,  to  preside  over  the  household  of  Llewellyn. 
But  it  was  precisely  at  this  time  that  feud  arose  be- 
tween that  prince  and  the  King  of  England.  Some 
sharp-witted  Bristolians,  probably  anxious  to  obtain 
the  favour  of  Edward,  watched  for  the  coming  of 
the  bride  by  sea,  and  ungallantly  captured  her 
off  the  Scilly  Isles.  The  rich  prize  was  borne  in 
triumph  to  the  king,  who  treated  Eleanor  with  a 
gallant  courtesy  worthy  of  the  principles  of  chivalry 
which  he  was  supposed  to  assume  for  his  guide ;  but 
candied  as  were  his  phrases,  he  would  not  let  her 
go;  and  in  her  gilded  cage  she  was  hung  out,  as 
it  were,  a  lure  or  a  menace  to  the  perplexed  lover 
over  the  Welsh  marches. 

In  presence  of  such  a  fact  Llewellyn  yielded.  He 
consented  to  the  hardest  terms,  agreed  to  pay  an 
oppressive  tribute,  to  render  personal  homage  to 
Edward  annually,  to  be  —  and  each  successive  heir 
after  him  —  the  mere  locum  tenenSy  the  steward  and 
deputy  of  the  King  of  England,  in  Wales.  Many 
other  hard  clauses  were  there  in  the  treaty,  which 
seems  ill  called  by  the  name  of  "  agreement ; "  but 
Llewellyn  accepted  them  all,  because  of  his  great  love 
for  Eleanor  de  Montfort. 

His  actual  presence  in  London,  to  render  homage 
and  confess  himself  subject  to  a  master,  was  proof 
enough   of  the   lowliness   to   which   his   pride   had 


WALES  AND  ENGLAND  9 

descended,  and  the  height  reached  by  his  affection. 
I  hope  the  Londoners  respected  this  eager  and  faith- 
ful lover.  They  certainly  did  not  the  country  gentle- 
men, rather  savage  and  unfashionable  barons,  who 
came  hither  in  his  train.  Some  suspicion  seems  to 
have  been  entertained  of  these  wild  and  proud  fol- 
lowers, for  they  were  located  at  Islington,  —  a  remote 
and  perilous  district  at  that  time,  with  little  about 
it  to  remind  them  of  their  distant  home,  save  the 
hill  to  the  north,  the  thieves  in  Hornsey  Wood,  and 
the  pastures  covered  by  cows,  yielding  a  milk  for 
which  Islington  was  long  famous. 

The  cows,  however,  could  not  yield  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  appetites  of  the  thirsty  retainers  of  Llew- 
ellyn ;  and  at  the  ale  supplied  to  them  they  turned 
up  their  noses  in  scorn,  mindful  as  they  were  of  the 
more  soft  and  sparkling  beverage  of  their  own  hap- 
pier country.  Of  mead  there  was  not  a  drop,  a  mel- 
ancholy fact  which  must  have  passed  for  a  proof  of 
barbarism  in  the  minds  of  men  at  the  court  of  whose 
prince  the  maker  of  mead  took  precedence  of  the 
physician.  The  wine  of  London  was  no  compensa- 
tion to  them  for  the  lack  of  mead ;  and  the  English 
bread  sat  uneasily  on  their  proud  stomachs.  This  is 
the  more  singular,  as  in  those  days  the  making  and 
baking  of  bread  formed  a  process  strictly  watched 
and  artistically  accomplished.  Carte,  the  historian, 
quotes  from  the  Mostyn  manuscripts  concerning  the 
excitement  caused  by  these  Snowdon  barons  and  their 
serfs.  The  cockneys  ridiculed  the  outlandish  stran- 
gers as  they  passed  through  the  streets  and  highways ; 
while  the  angry,  queer-spoken,  and  quaintly  dressed 
Welshmen  vented  inexpHcable  epithets  of  wrath  in 


10         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

return.  To  this  account  other  writers  add  that  the 
wild  Cymri  replied  to  the  rude  people  who  took  them 
for  savages  in  fierce  but  tuneful  choruses,  implying 
that  when  they  again  visited  Islington  it  would  only 
be  in  the  character  of  conquerors. 

Their  lord,  it  may  be  presumed,  kept  better  guard 
upon  his  temper ;  and  he  wore  the  air  of  as  good  a 
gentleman  as  any  at  court  when,  on  an  autumn  morn- 
ing of  1278,  he  entered  Worcester  Cathedral,  there 
to  espouse  the  lady  whom  he  had  long  sought,  and 
for  whose  dear  sake  he  had  made  such  large  sacrifice. 
Edward  himself,  the  queen  by  his  side,  gave  away 
the  bride.  It  was  the  second  of  the  eleven  visits 
which  he  paid  to  the  shrine  of  his  favourite  saint, 
Wulstan,  under  whose  patronage,  with  Bishop  God- 
frey Giffard  for  high  official,  the  nuptials  were  cele- 
brated with  solemnity  and  rejoicing. 

The  feast  over,  the  happy  couple,  in  modern 
phrase,  set  out  for  their  seat  in  North  Wales.  For 
a  very  short  season  they  had  a  happy  time  of  it,  and 
the  voice  of  an  infant  princess  was  heard  crowing  to 
the  music  of  the  harp-strings  of  the  bards  of  Llew- 
ellyn. But  her  birth  slew  her  mother,  and  she  only 
survived  to  live  a  nun  in  the  Lincolnshire  Abbey 
at  Sempringham.  Treason  at  home  and  oppression 
from  abroad  ultimately  drove  this  much  vexed  prince 
again  to  the  field,  and  this  time  the  quarrel  was 
fought  out  to  final  issue.  The  contest  for  the  pos- 
session of  Wales  was  long  and  varied  in  its  incidents 
of  alternate  triumph  and  defeat.  Sorely  did  the 
thought  of  Wales  and  of  the  cost  of  its  conquest 
sit  on  the  bosoms  of  the  friends,  relatives,  and  those 
dearer  than  friend  or  relative,  of  English  soldiers. 


WALES  AND  ENGLAND  ii 

"Beware,"  says  a  poem,  "The  Libel  English  Policy,** 
in  Hakluyt's  collection  : 

"  Beware  of  Wales,  Christ  Jesu  must  us  kepe, 
That  it  make  not  our  childers  childe  to  weepe." 

Gradually,  however,  the  gallant  prince  lost  the  fairest 
portion  of  his  inheritance,  and  therewith  the  hitherto 
most  faithful  and  enduring  of  his  friends.  These,  for 
the  most  part,  made  terms  with  the  king  favoured  by 
fortune,  and  Llewellyn  was  at  last  brought  to  bay 
by  his  pursuers. 

The  details  of  the  last  scene  in  which  he  played  a 
part,  I  subjoin,  as  given  by  Caradoc  of  Llangarfan, 
in  the  century  following  that  of  the  prince's  death, 
and  translated  by  Doctor  Powel  in  1584  : 

"  In  the  meantime  was  the  Earl  of  Gloucester  and 
Sir  Edmund  Mortimer  with  an  army  in  South  Wales, 
where  were  many  that  served  the  king,  and  there 
fought  with  the  prince's  friends  at  Llhandillo  Vawhr, 
and  gave  them  an  overthrow,  wherein,  on  the  king's 
side,  young  William  de  Valence,  his  cousin-german, 
and  four  knights  more  were  slain.  And  all  this  while 
the  prince  destroyed  the  country  of  Cardigan  and 
all  the  lands  of  Rees  ap  Meredith,  who  served  the 
king  in  all  these  wars.  But  afterward  the  prince 
separated  himself  from  his  army  with  a  few,  and 
came  to  Buehlt,  thinking  to  remain  there  quietly 
for  awhile ;  and  by  chance,  as  he  came  by  the  water 
Wye,  there  were  Edmund  Mortimer  and  John  Gifford 
with  a  great  number  of  soldiers,  and  either  party  were 
abashed  of  other.  Edmund  Mortimer's  men  were  of 
that  country,  for  his  father  was  lord  thereof.     Then 


12  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  prince  departed  from  his  men,  and  went  to  the 
valley,  with  the  squire  alone,  to  talk  with  certain 
lords  of  the  country  who  had  promised  to  meet  him 
there. 

"  Then  some  of  his  men,  seeing  his  enemies  come 
down  from  the  hill,  kept  the  bridge  called  the  Pont 
Orewyn,  and  defended  the  passage  manfully,  till  one 
declared  to  the  Englishmen  where  a  ford  was,  a  little 
beneath,  through  the  which  they  sent  a  number  of 
their  men  with  Elias  Walwyn,  who  suddenly  fell  upon 
them  that  defended  the  bridge,  in  their  backs,  and 
put  them'  to  flight.  The  prince's  esquire  told  the 
prince,  as  he  stood  secretly  abiding  the  coming  of 
such  as  promised  to  meet  him  in  a  little  grove,  that 
he  heard  a  great  noise  and  cry  at  the  bridge ;  and  the 
prince  asked  whether  his  men  had  taken  the  bridge, 
and  he  said,  *  Yes.'  *  Then,'  said  the  prince,  *  I  pass 
not,  if  all  the  power  of  England  were  upon  the  other 
side.'  But  suddenly,  behold  the  horsemen  about  the 
grove ;  and  as  he  would  have  escaped  to  his  men, 
they  pursued  him  so  hard  that  one  Adam  Francton 
ran  him  through  with  a  staff  (i*),  being  unarmed,  and 
knew  him  not.  And  his  men  being  but  a  few,  stood 
and  fought  boldly,  looking  for  their  prince,  till  the 
Englishmen,  by  force  of  archers,  mixed  with  the 
horsemen,  won  the  hill,  and  put  them  to  flight.  And 
as  they  returned,  Francton  went'to  despoil  him  whom 
he  had  slain ;  and  when  he  saw  his  face  he  knew  him 
very  well,  and  stroke  off  his  head,  and  sent  it  to  the 
king  at  the  Abbey  of  Conway,  who  received  it  with 
great  joy,  and  caused  it  to  be  set  upon  one  of  the 
highest  turrets  of  the  Tower  of  London.  This  was 
the  end  of  Llewellyn,  betrayed  by  the  men  of  Buehlt, 


WALES  AND  ENGLAND  13 

who  was  the  last  prince  of  Briton's  blood  who  bore 
dominion  and  rule  in  Wales." 

Carte,  in  his  General  History  of  England,  speaks 
only  of  the  hand  being  cut  off,  and  he  adds  that  the 
corpse  of  the  prince  lay  for  some  time  unburied. 
The  friends  of  Llewellyn  naturally  desired  to  deposit 
the  remains  of  their  unhappy  master  in  consecrated 
ground.  But  how  could  such  burial  be  granted  to  a 
rebel  who,  dying  unrepentant,  lay  there  unsanctified 
by  absolution  ?  At  length  one  with  pious  fraud  and 
convenient  memory  —  or  it  would  have  served  him 
sooner  —  affected  to  remember,  what  indeed  was  not 
unnatural,  that  the  prince,  ere  he  yielded  his'  last 
breath,  had  asked  for  a  priest.  This  circumstance 
was  reported  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
the  charitable  prelate  accepting  the  request  of 
Llewellyn  as  a  sign  of  his  repentance,  accorded  the 
prayed-for  absolution ;  and  with  maimed  body,  but 
not  with  maimed  rites,  the  last  of  the  British  princes 
of  the  blood  of  Cadwallader  the  Blessed  was  appro- 
priately interred. 

The  prophecy  is  still  repeated,  if  not  believed,  that 
the  ancient  Britons  will  not  recover  their  freedom  till 
they  have  brought  back  the  bones  of  the  old  king  from 
Italy.  But  this  is  a  prophecy  which  is  not  likely  to 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  wearer  of  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, nor  of  the  young  heir  thereto  who  bears  the  old 
title  of  Llewellyn,  —  Prince  of  Wales.  It  would  be 
as  difficult  to  discover  the  bones  of  Cadwallader,  as 
it  would  be  to  select  a  number  of  pure-blooded  Britons 
sufficient  to  carry  anything  that  remains  of  that  mon- 
arch of  blessed  but  sorrowful  memory. 


CHAPTER   II. 

EDWARD    OF    CAERNARVON 
Born  1284.     Died  (king)  1327 

The  tide  of  the  Welsh  war  rapidly  ebbed  after  the 
death  of  Llewellyn,  but  a  huge  wave  would  occasion- 
ally rush  and  shatter  itself  into  spray  against  the  bul- 
warks reared  by  Edward  I.  expressly  to  check  and 
break  such  assailants.  Before  the  storm  had  quite 
lulled,  the  king  manifested  his  sense  of  security  by 
leaving  his  daughters,  Eleanor  and  Joanna,  to  keep 
their  little  court  in  some  Welsh  castle  alone,  under 
ordinary  guard,  but  with  such  good  lookout  as  to 
ensure  the  uninterrupted  conveyance  of  supplies. 

Pennant  calls  Caernarvon  Castle  the  magnificent 
badge  of  his  countrymen's  subjection.  This  palace- 
fortress,  the  very  shell  of  which  reflects  honour  on 
the  names  of  its  various  architects,  was  commenced, 
by  order  of  the  king,  in  1282,  and  was  completed  in 
about  forty  years.  As  portions  were  finished,  they 
were  inhabited;  and,  in  1284,  a  legend  says  that 
Edward's  consort  was  brought  there  for  the  purpose 
of  working  out  a  political  end  which  the  astute  king 
had  in  view. 

Hitherto  he  had  been  unlucky  in  his  sons.  He 
had  had  three,  but  two  were  dead ;  and  the  infant 
Alphonso,  surviving  in  the  early  part  of  1284,  was  in 
such  poor  health  that  he  too  passed  away  before  the 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  15 

year  itself  had  died  out.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
princess  royal,  Eleanor,  was  at  this  time  a  handsome 
and  healthy  girl,  reckoning  in  age  just  a  score  of 
years.  Even  in  the  lifetime  of  her  sickly  brothers 
she  had  been  designated  by  Edward  as  his  successor. 
But  the  sceptre  was  not  destined,  in  this  instance,  to 
go  to  the  distaff. 

The  Welshmen  are  reported  to  have  longed  for 
a  native  prince  as  vicegerent  of  their  royal  con- 
queror. The  Queen  of  England  was,  in  good 
old  English  phrase,  in  the  family  way ;  and  when 
she  gave  birth  to  a  prince  in  such  room  as  could 
be  prepared  for  such  an  event  in  Caernarvon  town, 
if  not  in  Caernarvon  Castle,'  men  speedily  learned 
why  the  place  was  selected  for  such  an  achievement. 
When  the  messenger  arrived  at  Rhudlan  Castle, 
where  Edward  was  residing,  on  political  business, 
and  announced  to  him  that  his  queen  had  given 
birth  to  a  boy  at  Caernarvon  on  the  preceding  day, 
the  25th  of  April,  1284,  Edward,  in  his  joy,  made  a 
knight  of  the  messenger,  stuffed  his  pouches  with 
gold  pieces,  and  gave  him  house  and  lands  to  enable 
him  to  support  his  new  dignity  becomingly.  Subse- 
quently, after  reaching  Caernarvon,  on  which  city 
he  conferred  the  first  English  charter  of  rights  and 
privileges  granted  in  Wales,  he  assembled  there  cer- 
tain leaders  of  the  Welsh  people  who  had  clamoured 
for  a  native  prince.  If  the  legend  be  true,  they  were 
not  very  acute  Welshmen  to  be  caught  in  the  trap 
laid  for  them  by  the  king,  who,  after  receiving  from 
them  the  expression  of  their  willingness  to  submit 

*  The  *'  Eagle  Tower,"  said  to  be  the  birthplace  of  the  prince,  was 
not  yet  in  existence. 


i6         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  a  prince  born  within  the  country,  of  blameless  life 
and  free  from  prejudices,  proceeded  to  the  queen's 
chamber,  and,  taking  the  infant  prince  in  his  arms, 
brought  him  to  the  Welsh  chieftains,  claiming  their 
allegiance  to  him  according  to  promise. 

A  local  tradition,  picked  up  by  Prince  Piickler 
Muskau,  states  that  when  Edward,  with  the  infant 
in  his  arms,  approached  the  Welshmen,  "he  pre- 
sented to  them  his  new-born  son,  exclaiming  in 
broken  Welsh,  *  Eich  Dyn  ! '  that  is,  *  This  is  your 
man  ! '  "  The  verbal  translation  is  simply  "  Your 
man ! "  and  the  expression  would  have  been  exceed- 
ingly appropriate,  considering  the  occasion.  The 
German  traveller  believes  that  these  words  were 
subsequently  corrupted  into  Ich  DieUy  which  is  more 
questionable,  and  will  have  to  be  inquired  into  in 
a  subsequent  chapter. 

The  christening  of  the  young  Prince  Edward  was 
of  the  very  gayest.  He  was  held  at  the  font  by 
Anian,  Bishop  of  Bangor.  Never  had  officiating 
prelate  a  more  royal  and  liberal  fee  for  performing 
such  an  office.  The  king,  so  to  speak,  heaped  upon 
him  manors  and  regalities,  in  various  parts  of  Angle- 
sea  and  Caernarvon,  adding  thereto  the  ferries  of 
Borthnan  and  Cadnant,  over  the  Menai,  which  con- 
tributed no  little  increase  of  revenue  to  the  bishop. 
Such  a  christening  fee  (which  is  duly  recorded  in  a 
manuscript  presented  to  the  British  Museum,  in  1 844, 
by  the  governors  of  the  Welsh  School)  had  never 
before  been  presented  to  a  prelate  admitting  a  young 
prince  into  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  the  liberal 
example  set  by  the  jubilant  and  grateful  Edward 
has  never  since  been  followed. 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  17 

Speedily  after  this  remarkable  christening,  the 
prince  was  removed  from  Caernarvon  to  Conway, 
thence  to  Chester,  and  subsequently  to  London,  — 
all  by  easy  stages  of  some  threescore  miles  in  a  fort- 
night. Of  his  infancy,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  there 
are  no  incidents  worth  the  telling ;  but  as  influencing 
his  after  character,  it  may  be  stated,  that  it  was  the 
misfortune  of  Prince  Edward  to  lose  his  mother. 
Queen  Eleanor,  when  he  was  in  his  sixth  year.  All 
the  affection  of  his  first  nurse,  Mary  of  Caernarvon, 
could  not  compensate  for  the  loss  of  such  a  parent ; 
but  Edward,  nevertheless,  did  not  forget  the  care 
taken  of  him  by  his  Welsh  foster-mother.  When 
he  became  king,  she  went  to  London  to  behold  him 
in  his  capital,  and  Edward  gave  her  twenty  ^shillings 
—  equal  to  jCi$  of  our  present  money  —  to  defray 
her  travelling  expenses.  Of  other  nurses  who  tended 
him  in  childhood,  we  shall  find  him  equally  mindful  — 
and  such  gratitude  has  been  a  common  trait  among 
our  princes.  Great,  too,  has  been  the  love  of  these 
foster-mothers  for  their  princely  wards ;  love  lasting 
beyond  the  grave,  and,  indeed,  not  confined  to  our 
country,  or  to  a  Christian  one.  It  was  the  nurse  of 
Domitian  who  mingled  his  ashes  with  those  of  Julia, 
and  the  foster-mother  of  Alexander  united  his  with 
those  of  Patroclus. 

During  the  years  1286,  7,  and  8,  King  Edward 
was  absent  in  Aquitaine,  and  the  record  of  the  young 
prince's  life  would  not  be  worth  the  telling,  even  if 
it  could  be  written.  At  an  early  period  his  young 
eyes  rested  on  three  marvellously  splendid  shows,  — 
namely,  the  marriages  of  his  three  sisters,  Eleanor, 
Margaret,  and  Joanna.     In  1289,  he  was  too  young 


1 8         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  understand  why  his  sister  Mary  went  through  the 
solemn  ceremony  of  becoming  a  nun  at  Amesbury. 
The  little  nun,  who  had  entered  on  her  probation 
in  the  year  1284,  when  her  grandmother,  Eleanor  of 
Provence,  took  the  veil,  and  who  now  assumed  the 
religious  habit,  with  thirteen  young  ladies  of  noble 
famiUes,  against  the  inclination  of  the  king  and 
queen,  experienced  the  quietest  and  happiest  lot  of 
all ;  but,  nuns  or  brides,  the  daughters  of  King 
Edward  left  their  sire's  palace  without  regret,  for 
he  was  a  stern  and  violent  father  alike  to  all  his  chil- 
dren. He  had  scarcely  seen  his  daughters  well 
matched,  and  the  Maidens'  Hall  at  Westminster 
no  longer  tenanted,  than  he  occupied  himself  with 
the  project  of  uniting  Scotland  to  England  by  a 
marriage  between  his  son  Edward  and  Margaret 
of  Norway,  heiress,  through  her  mother,  to  the 
Scottish  crown.  This  project  was  defeated  only  by 
the  early  death  of  the  intended  bride,  and  the  king 
was  left  to  work  out  the  acquisition  of  the  northern 
kingdom  by  other  means  than  family  unions.  Mean- 
while, the  little  prince  kept  house  of  his  own,  long 
before  he  could  have  understood  the  method  of  its 
keeping.  Thus,  we  hear,  not  only  of  his  taking 
a  conspicuous  part  at  his  sisters'  weddings,  appearing 
in  gallant  array,  and  showering  coin  liberally  even  on 
court  fools  accompanying  the  bridegrooms,  but  we 
are  told  of  the  married  couples  visiting  their  preco- 
cious brother  at  his  separate  house  at  Mortlake. 
Mrs.  Everett  Green,  in  her  "  Life  of  the  Princess 
Joanna,"  quotes,  from  ancient  authorities,  the  inci- 
dents of  two  such  visits  made  by  the  princess  and 
her  husband,  the  Earl  of  Gloucester.     That  they  do 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  19 

not  appear  to  have  been  formal,  but  that  there  was 
some  frolicsomeness  and  becoming  jollity  on  the 
occasion,  will  be  seen  from  what  the  authoress, 
just  named,  has  collected  touching  two  visits  of 
the  newly  married  couple  to  the  prince  at  Mortlake. 

"The  first  was  on  Thursday,  January  22,  1293, 
when  she  remained  with  him  until  the  following  Satur- 
day; the  second  on  the  3d  of  May,  when  she  was 
accompanied  by  her  husband.  On  both  occasions  a 
*  decent  company '  of  soldiers,  ladies,  damsels,  clerks, 
and  squires  attended  her.  They  received  nothing 
from  the  prince's  stable,  having  brought  their  own 
horses'  provender  with  them  ;  but  their  presence  at 
his  table  nearly  doubled  his  ordinary  expenditure, 
especially  in  the  article  of  wine,  the  usual  allowance 
of  twenty-two  measures  per  day  being  increased  to 
forty  or  forty-two." 

If  Prince  Edward  partook  freely  of  what  was  on 
the  board,  we  may  the  less  wonder  that  his  health 
occasionally  suffered.  His  house  had  a  hard  run 
upon  it,  for  thither,  too,  went  his  sister  Eleanor  and 
her  husband,  Henry,  Duke  of  Bar;  also  his  sister 
Margaret  and  her  consort,  John  of  Brabrant.  From 
whatever  cause,  it  is  on  record  that  the  prince  and 
Lady  Margaret,  his  sister,  were  laid  up  with  tertian 
fever,  in  1294,  from  the  Feast  of  the  Annunciation 
till  Easter-tide,  when  the  royal  patients  were  slowly 
recovering. 

For  the  cure  of  these  and  other  maladies  in  the 
household  of  Edward,  medical  practice  was  not  alone 
relied  upon.  When  the  young  prince  or  any  of  his 
sisters  were  seriously  indisposed,  St.  Edmund,  St. 
Wulstan,  or  some  other  saint   dear  to  the  line  of 


20         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Plantagenet,  was  appealed  to,  and  the  length  or  weight 
of  the  patient  in  wax  candles  was  burnt  out  at  the 
shrine  !  If  the  desired  result  followed,  the  royal  chil- 
dren had  their  purses  filled  with  gold  pieces,  which 
they  deposited  on  the  altars  of  churches,  to  which 
they  were  allowed  to  pay  a  visit,  by  way  of  holiday. 

The  saints,  certainly,  could  not  have  been  so  bar- 
barous to  the  young  Prince  of  Wales  as  his  own 
doctor  was.  This  sage  was  the  favourite  physician  of 
Edward's  stepmother.  Queen  Marguerite;  his  name 
was  Gaddesden.  When  the  young  prince  was  at- 
tacked by  smallpox,  the  learned  doctor  assailed  the 
disease  according  to  a  fashion  which  long  after  pre- 
vailed. "I  ordered  the  prince,"  such  is  his  own 
account  in  his  Latin  work,  "  to  be  enveloped  in  scarlet 
cloth,  and  that  his  bed  and  all  the  furniture  of  his 
chamber  should  be  of  a  bright  red  colour;  which 
practice  not  only  cured  him,  but  prevented  him  from 
being  marked."  So  satisfied  was  Gaddesden  with 
the  efficacy  of  this  practice  that,  according  to  his  own 
words,  he  "  treated  the  sons  of  the  noblest  houses  in 
England  with  the  red  system,  and  made  good  cures  of 
all."  The  saints  must  surely  have  saved  prince  and 
young  gentlemen,  in  spite  of  the  treatment,  and  they 
merited  all  the  golden  acknowledgments  that  grati- 
tude could  lay  upon  the  altar. 

An  entry  in  King  Edward's  Household  Book 
records  the  purchase  of  a  "  Primer "  for  the  prince, 
when  the  latter  was  sixteen  years  of  age.  We  are 
not  to  conclude  therefrom,  that  he  only  then  began  to 
learn  to  read.  The  "  Primer  "  may  have  been  a  gift 
made  by  him  to  one  of  his  young  half-brothers.  We 
have  a  proof  of  the  care  taken  for  the  suitable  educa- 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  21 

tion  of  the  heir  of  England,  in  the  fact  of  the  ap- 
pointment of  an  eminent  scholar  of  his  day  to  be  the 
young  prince's  tutor.  This  was  Walter  Reynaud  or 
Reynolds,  subsequently  a  Privy  Councillor,  Bishop 
of  Worcester,  Chancellor,  and  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. Lord  Campbell  says  apologetically  of  his 
great  predecessor  on  the  woolsack,  that  the  tutor  of 
Edward  "  cannot  be  held  accountable  for  the  defective 
character  or  conduct  of  his  royal  pupil,  who,  though 
he  might  have  been  expected  to  have  inherited  great 
talents  from  both  his  parents,  was  by  nature  of  an 
understanding  narrow,  frivolous,  and  incapable  of 
cultivation  or  correction." 

Lord  Campbell's  judgment  of  the  prince  is  probably 
more  unfavourable  than  existing  testimony  would 
warrant,  though  he  is  undoubtedly  right  in  his  esti- 
mate of  Reynolds,  who  was  one  of  those  able  and 
industrious  men  who,  having  risen  from  a  very  humble 
starting-point  —  the  shop  of  his  father,  a  Windsor 
baker  —  and  progressively  rising  to  the  primacy  of 
England,  both  in  the  Law  and  the  Church,  was  scorn- 
fully spoken  of  by  great  men  of  small  minds  and  little 
industry.  If  the  prince  neglected  the  teaching  of 
Walter,  he  at  least  never  ceased  to  respect  his  old 
tutor ;  and  when  that  tutor  ultimately  became  arch- 
bishop, Edward  attended  at  his  enthronisation,  in 
proof  of  the  regard  he  had  for  a  man  whose  material 
interests  he  was  always  ready  to  promote. 

The  king  had  a  poor  library,  and  a  meaner  ward- 
robe. Edward's  taste  was  of  a  more  splendid  charac- 
ter with  respect  to  the  gold  and  jewels  among  which 
his  books  were  deposited.  On  this  point  the  prince 
had  an  example  of  magnificence  before  him,  which  he 


22  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  not  slow  to  adopt,  to  the  heavy  cost  of  his  treas- 
ury ;  and  he  was  more  frequently  the  patron  of  Ade, 
the  fashionable  goldsmith  of  the  day,  than  he  was  of 
the  copiers  of  manuscripts  and  the  limners  of  initial 
letters. 

It  would  seem  that  when  young  Edward  made  gifts 
of  cups  and  clasps  to  his  sisters,  or  of  jewels  at  the 
shrines  of  saints  in  favour  at  court,  the  liberality  was 
not  so  extensive  as  would  at  first  sight  appear ;  an 
order  upon  Ade  the  goldsmith  was  all  that  was  neces- 
sary, and,  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  Welsh  law  which 
enacted  that  the  sovereign  should,  without  grumbling, 
pay  the  debts  of  the  etheling,  Edward  Longshanks 
settled  the  accounts  of  Edward  of  Caernarvon. 

The  latter,  about  this  time,  began  to  show  that  if 
he  had  not  read  history,  yet  was  he  not  entirely  igno- 
rant of  what  it  taught.  He  appears  to  have  especially 
remembered  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  British 
ethelings,  heirs  to  the  sovereignty  of  Wales.  Among 
other  laws  regarding  the  princes  of  this  rank,  it  was 
enacted  that  the  heir  apparent  should  be  held  in  the 
greatest  honour,  after  the  king  and  queen ;  that  at 
table  he  should  have  the  chief  guest  of  the  day  on 
one  side  of  him,  to  awaken  his  interest  by  stories 
of  travel,  and  the  chief  falconer  on  the  other,  to 
amuse  him  with  incidents  of  sport.  At  the  fire,  he 
had  a  right  to  one  corner,  opposite  to  that  occupied 
by  the  sovereign  ;  and  if  a  solemn  judge  was  placed 
next  to  him  to  fill  him  with  judicial  wisdom,  he  had 
behind  him  the  chief  of  the  bards,  whom  he  could 
call  upon  for  a  song,  when  weary  of  the  process  of 
being  filled  with  wisdom.  There  were  even  higher 
privileges  than  these  enjoyed  by  the  Princes  of  Wales 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  23 

before  the  Saxon  era.  It  was  the  duty  of  their  royal 
father  (as  I  have  before  recorded)  to  pay  all  their  ex- 
penses ungrudgingly;  and  never  to  grumble  at  any 
extravagance  of  banquet  or  amount  of  good  liquor 
called  for  by  the  prince  and  the  companions  who 
officially  attended  him.  The  servants  of  his  very 
household  were  not  paid  for  out  of  the  prince's  privy 
purse,  but  out  of  that  of  his  much-suffering  and  duti- 
ful sire.  The  horses  of  his  stud,  his  carfach  or  war- 
charger  not  excepted,  were  provided  after  the  same 
agreeable  fashion  ;  and  the  only  curb,  or  seeming 
curb,  placed  upon  the  prince  himself,  was  to  be  found 
in  the  regulation  laid  down  to  the  effect  that  the 
prince  was  never  to  make  a  night  of  it  out  of  the 
palace  —  unless  he  chose  to  do  so !  While  he  was 
away,  his  gentleman-woodman  looked  to  the  maintain- 
ing of  a  good  fire  in  his  bedroom ;  and  when  his 
Royal  Highness  returned,  the  same  official  put  on 
another  fagot  or  two,  and  carefully  closed  the  door, 
in  order  to  keep  out  the  thieves,  the  wind,  and  the 
wolves. 

The  most  pleasant  portion  of  these  old  laws  young 
Edward  seemed  to  think  were  still  in  force ;  for  he 
soon  took  to  himself  false  friends,  fell  into  evil  ways, 
and  quarrelled  with  his  sire,  who  was  roused  to  anger 
by  his  son's  lack  of  obedience  and  his  astounding 
extravagance. 

While  yet  a  boy,  the  prince's  manners  were  marked 
by  some  rudeness,  which  was  afterward  cited  as  a 
proof  that  the  prince  was  not  the  son  of  King  Ed- 
ward. When  John  the  Tanner,  after  the  death  of 
Edward  Longshanks,  proclaimed  himself  as  heir  to 
the  throne  —  and  Edward  of  Caernarvon  as  an  im- 


24         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

poster  —  he  partly  supported  the  latter  assertion  by 
alluding  to  the  churl-like  want  of  grace  and  culture 
in  the  so-called  prince.  But  if  young  Edward  pos- 
sessed neither  the  grace  nor  talent  of  his  sire,  neither 
was  he  torn  by  the  violent  temper  to  which  his  father 
too  readily  gave  way.  One  instance  of  this  occurred 
about  the  middle  of  January,  1297,  at  a  mixed,  gay, 
and  unpleasant  scene  at  Ipswich,  where  the  king  kept 
court,  and  the  prince's  sister,  Isabella  (or  Elizabeth), 
married  the  Earl  of  Holland.  The  scene,  in  some 
respects,  was  one  of  much  joyousness ;  and  "  Maud 
Makejoy"  earned  two  shillings  by  dancing  a  lively 
measure  for  the  express  gratification,  and  in  presence 
of  "the  eldest  son  of  the  king,"  in  the  great  hall  at 
Ipswich.  Minstrels  and  fiddlers,  or  vidulatoresy  were 
remunerated  at  above  twenty  times  that  rate,  which 
seems  warrant  of  their  excellence;  and  official  ser- 
vices rendered  to  the  bride  were  paid  by  costly  fees. 

This  was  the  most  unseemly  day  for  a  father  to 
fall  out  with  the  bride  —  that  bride  being  his  daugh- 
ter —  but  at  some  cause  of  offence  not  now  known, 
the  excitable  Longshanks  snatched  the  coronet  from 
the  bride's  head,  and  "  the  king's  Grace,"  as  the 
wardrobe  book  records,  "was  pleased  to  throw  it 
behind  the  fire."  The  loss  to  the  coronet  was  a  large 
ruby  and  an  emerald,  which  the  king  had  to  supply 
when  his  wrath  had  subsided. 

The  prince  had  only  just  entered  his  "  teens,"  in 
that  same  year,  1 297,  when  he  was  present  at  a  cere- 
mony which  should  have  been  rich  to  him  in  lessons 
of  wisdom,  had  he  but  known  how  to  learn  and  to 
apply  them.  His  father,  to  provide  for  the  expenses 
of  his  wars  in  Wales,    Scotland,  and  France,    had 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  25 

almost  crushed  every  class  of  his  subjects  beneath 
an  unparalleled  burden  of  taxation.  When  all  were 
equally  oppressed,  there  was  some  chance  of  relief 
for  the  poorer  as  well  as  for  the  richer  classes,  and 
the  cry  of  the  former  was  heard  as  a  cry  of  anguish 
by  the  latter,  now  that  it  happened  to  be  their  inter- 
est to  listen  to  it. 

On  a  new  royal  order,  issued  in  the  year  above 
named,  for  an  increase  to  taxes  already  insupportable, 
and  decreed  in  order  to  enable  Edward  to  carry  on  a 
foreign  war,  there  arose  an  universal  outcry  of  indig- 
nation. The  nobles,  the  clergy,  and  the  people,  all 
shamefully  plundered,  lost  all  restraint  of  speech  at 
this  new  trial  of  their  patient  loyalty.  The  officers 
appointed  to  enforce  the  levy  declined  to  carry  out 
their  instructions ;  and  Bigod,  Earl  of  Norfolk,  and 
Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford,  incited  the  citizens  to  dis- 
obedience, and  encouraged  them  in  their  opposition. 
When  this  opposition  had  assumed  a  menacing  as- 
pect, Edward  condescended  to  meet  his  people,  and, 
by  this  acknowledgment  of  the  force  of  public  opinion, 
to  confess  that  he  owed  them  at  least  the  explanation 
of  a  course  of  conduct  which  they  bitterly  denounced. 
A  platform  was  erected  in  front  of  Westminster  Hall, 
on  which  appeared  the  king  and  Prince  Edward,  with 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Earl  of  War- 
wick. The  prince  appeared  there,  because  he  had 
recently  been  appointed  regent  or  guardian  of  the 
kingdom  in  his  father's  absence,  —  a  nominal  appoint- 
ment which  was  in  reality  exercised  by  the  most  cele- 
brated prelates  and  lawyers,  who  were  the  lords  of  a 
council  of  regency. 

While  Prince  Edward  stood  silently  near  his  father's 


26         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

side,  the  king  addressed  the  highly  interested  multi- 
tude before  him,  and  by  crafty  words,  and  a  display 
of  sentimental  no-meaning,  —  by  representations  of 
the  perils  of  the  country,  of  the  bloodthirstiness  of 
its  enemies  at  home  and  abroad,  of  the  sacrifice  which 
he  was  about  to  make  of  his  own  life,  if  necessary, 
and  of  his  love  for  his  son,  the  prince,  for  whom  he 
besought  their  allegiance,  should  he  himself  perish 
in  the  field,  —  he  so  wrought  upon  their  feelings  that 
the  honest-hearted  audience,  forgetting  altogether  the 
question  of  taxes,  burst,  some  into  shouts,  and  some 
into  tears,  and  dispersed,  commenting  the  while  on 
the  noble  spirit  of  the  king,  and  the  willing  duty  they 
owed  to  that  princely  boy  at  his  side. 

With  that  boy  Edward  withdrew,  silent  and  re- 
joicing ;  and,  taking  his  sympathising  people  in  their 
humour,  he  left  an  order,  as  he  departed  from 
London  for  Winchelsea,  where  he  embarked  on  his 
foreign  expedition,  for  an  immediate  levy  of  the 
newly  increased  tax. 

The  people  at  once  swept  all  sympathy  for  the 
king  and  affection  for  the  prince  out  of  their  hearts ; 
and,  finding  themselves  deluded,  they  assumed  an 
attitude  of  resolute  resistance.  Young  Edward  was 
then  sojourning  at  Tonbridge  Castle,  but  he  was 
brought  up  to  London  by  the  lords  of  the  council 
in  order  to  appease,  if  possible,  the  outraged  citizens. 
The  latter  may  be  said  to  have  held  the  young  guard- 
ian of  the  realm  in  their  keeping,  but  they  confined 
themselves  to  one  object,  to  the  accomplishment  of 
which  they  were  manfully  helped  by  the  nobles  and 
clergy.  That  object  was  their  exemption  from  all 
taxation,  save  by  their  own  consent,  given  by  them- 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  27 

selves  or  their  representatives.  Nothing  less  would 
satisfy  them,  and,  despite  all  open  opposition  and 
subterfuge,  they  gained  their  great  and  good  object. 
Prince  Edward  was  entirely  under  the  guidance  of 
Chancellor  Langton,  to  whom,  at  Tonbridge  Castle, 
he  had  recently  presented  a  new  great  seal,  in  place 
of  that  which  the  king  had  taken  with  him  beyond 
the  Channel. 

By  the  Parliament  presided  over  by  Langton,  it 
was  enacted  that,  in  future,  "no  tax  henceforth  be 
levied  or  laid  by  us  (the  king)  or  our  heirs,  in  this 
our  realm  without  the  good-will  and  common  assent 
of  the  archbishops,  bishops,  and  other  prelates,  the 
earls,  barons,  knights,  burgesses,  and  other  freemen 
of  our  realm."  The  act,  of  which  the  very  pith  and 
marrow  are  contained  in  those  words,  received  the 
signature,  at  all  events  the  official  sanction,  of  the 
prince,  as  the  representative  of  his  absent  sire ;  and 
thus  it  may  be  said  that  one  of  the  most  important 
clauses  in  the  roll  of  our  freedom  —  a  clause  which 
was  as  a  dead  letter  in  the  Magna  Charta  of  King 
John,  and  which,  with  quiet  felony,  was  omitted  from 
that  of  Henry  III.,  —  was  restored  permanently  to 
the  people  by  the  first  Prince  of  Wales  of  English 
blood.  ^ 

In  the  year  1299,  there  was  less  of  law  than  of 
love-making.  King  Edward's  marriage  with  Margue- 
rite of  France  was  then  being  negotiated  ;  and  that  of 
Prince   Edward,  with  her  niece  Isabelle  of  France, 

*  This  restoration  was  effected,  not  very  willingly,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Chancellor  Langton,  whose  ancestor,  Stephen  Langton, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was  more  illustriously  connected  with  the 
establishment  of  Magna  Charta  itself. 


28  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  also  in  course  of  arrangement.  When  the  former 
match  was  solemnised  in  the  autumn  of  this  year,  at 
Canterbury,  that  of  young  Edward  and  Isabelle  was 
formally  agreed  upon,  at  the  same  time  and  place. 
For  some  months  previously,  however,  the  prince 
had  himself  been  made  to  sign  documents  for  the 
securing  of  this  marriage ;  and  from  a  royal  manor 
on  the  eastern  side  of  London,  he,  nominally,  at 
least,  wooed  his  young  bride  —  then  barely  five  years 
old  —  by  deputy. 

Stepney  is  not  now  a  locality  in  which  one  would 
expect  to  find  a  prince,  or  to  see  a  bishop's  palace,  or 
the  gateway  of  the  inn  of  a  noble.  Neither  is  "  fra- 
grance "  a  term  which  could  now  be  applied  to  this 
dirty  and  destitute  district.  It  was  otherwise  in  days 
gone  by.  Six  hundred  years  ago,  the  king  had  a 
manor  here.  Here,  too,  princes  were  located,  and 
prelates  and  nobles  here  resided ;  here,  in  the  woods 
of  the  diocesan  of  London,  men  and  maidens,  centuries 
ago,  were  wont  to  go  a-maying,  and  to  carry  home 
armsful  of  the  fragrant  booty.  Here,  in  1299,  at  the 
age  of  fifteen,  was  Edward  located,  and  hence  he 
issued  the  missive  on  one  of  the  May  days  of  that 
year  concerning  his  projected  marriage  with  Isabelle 
of  France.  In  this  missive,  which  Mr.  Halliwell  has 
taken  from  the  Cottonian  MSS.,  and  printed  in 
"  Letters  of  the  Kings  of  England,"  etc.,  the  Prince 
of  Wales  states  that  peace  and  good-will  being  then 
established  between  his  father  and  the  King  of  France, 
—  to  strengthen  this  happy  condition  of  things,  the 
espousals  of  himself  and  the  young  princess  had  been 
resolved  upon.  The  prince  then  writes,  or  is  made 
to  write : 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  29 

"Wherefore  we  wishing  and  desiring  humbly  to 
obey  the  Apostolic  Ordinary,  and  to  comply  with  the 
wishes  of  our  nobles  (as  we  are  bound),  the  advice 
and  assent  of  our  father  being  thereto  added,  do  con- 
stitute and  appoint  a  notable  personage,  Amadeus, 
Count  of  Savoy,  as  our  true  and  lawful  proxy  and 
especial  messenger,  to  contract  the  espousals,  for  us 
and  in  our  name,  with  the  aforesaid  Isabelle ;  and  to 
confirm  the  same  espousals  by  certain  oaths  and 
penalties ;  and  to  swear  on  our  behalf,  upon  our  soul, 
whatsoever  kind  of  oath  is  lawful ;  and  to  do  all  and 
every  that  ourself  should  or  could  do  if  we  were  per- 
sonally present,  even  if  they  should  require  a  special 
mandate  from  us :  we  holding  and  intending  to  hold 
good  and  ratified  whatever  may  have  been  done,  per- 
formed, or  attornied  by  the  before-named  count  in 
the  premises  or  any  of  them.  And  this  we  make 
known  to  all  whom  it  concerneth,  or  may  or  can  con- 
cern, or  will  concern  in  future,  by  these  our  letters- 
patent,  confirmed  by  the  force  and  sanction  of  our 
seal.     Given  at  Stepney,  the  15th  May,  1299." 

In  this  way  commenced  the  wooing  of  the  first 
Prince  of  Wales.  For  some  years,  however,  the 
affair  made  no  progress.  Meanwhile  this  year,  1 299, 
was  in  other  respects  an  eventful  one  to  young 
Edward.  It  was  the  year  in  which  Piers  de  Gaveston, 
probably,  first  appeared  at  court.  This  probability 
is  founded  on  an  entry  in  the  household  expenses  of 
the  king  (Carlton  Ride  MSS.),  which  marks  the 
period  at  which  the  old  Gascon  knight  Arnold  de 
Gaveston  arrived  in  England.  "To  the  Lords  Ar- 
nold de  Gaveston,  R.  de  Caupenne,  and  Bertram 
Povisalls,  who  were  lately  in  the  King  of  France's 


so  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

prison  and  escaped,  for  their  expenses  in  journeying 
through  Brabant,  and  passing  into  England,  ;£/,  ioj." 
The  accepted  story  has  always  been,  that  the  father 
of  Piers,  having  rendered  important  services  to  the 
king  in  Gascony,  obtained  as  a  portion  of  his  reward 
the  admission  of  his  son  into  the  royal  household, 
where  he  enjoyed  a  companionship  with  the  heir 
apparent. 

In  proportion  as  the  fortunes  of  the  boy  Piers,  or 
Perot,  as  the  prince  was  wont  affectionately  to  call 
him,  brightened,  so  did  those  who  envied  his  eleva- 
tion hate  him  for  the  fact,  and  assail  him  as  being 
altogether  unworthy,  from  his  alleged  lowly  birth 
and  evil  ways,  to  hold  companionship  with  a  prince. 
What  good,  it  was  said,  could  come  of  friendship  with 
a  youth  whose  mother,  it  was  added,  had  been  burnt 
for  a  witch  in  Guienne  ? 

The  biographers,  however,  of  Piers  de  Gaveston 
agree  in  styhng  him  of  "  gentle  birth."  Christopher 
Marlowe,  in  his  long,  rambling  chronicle  -  tragedy, 
"  Edward  the  Second,"  has  adopted  the  popular  tra- 
dition that  the  favourite  was  of  humble  origin,  and 
he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  enemies  of  the 
"minion"  who  led  the  Prince  of  Wales  first  into 
folly,  and  from  folly  into  sin,  some  very  hard,  not  to 
say  unsavoury,  terms. 

The  popular  tradition,  however,  followed  by  the 
poet,  can  hardly  be  the  true  one.  Prince  Edward's 
early  friend  was  the  son  of  a  gentleman  of  Gascony, 
who  had  performed  such  welcome  service  to  Edward 
I.,  that  the  king  readily  agreed  to  make  of  the  then 
boy  Piers  a  friend  and  companion  —  half-friend  and 
half-servant,  that  is  —  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.    They 


'»  loMd^niiOD  bne  bnshl  Hva  ns  25 w  all 


lold. 


i      evil      We 

whose  aS  addet; 


into 


ant,  thuf  ic        -o  v| 


"He  wds  an  evil  friend   and  counsellor  to 
the  prince" 

riiotogravure  Jron,  I  he  pa  hit  i,,^  by  Marcus  Stout 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  31 

lived  together  on  terms  of  the  freest  familiarity.  To 
such  light  studies  as  were  in  fashion  then,  they  ad- 
dressed themselves  in  company,  and  were  united  in 
learning  or  neglecting  such  lessons  as  each  was 
expected  to  master.  In  their  general  tastes,  the  two 
boys  are  said  to  have  closely  resembled  each  other; 
but  the  stronger,  at  least  the  more  imperious,  mind 
was  with  Piers ;  and  in  this  case,  as  in  all  other  such 
companionships,  the  more  crafty  and  resolute  intel- 
lect shaped,  ruled,  and  here  unhappily  misled,  the 
weaker  understanding.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
nor  is  the  term  itself,  as  applied  to  the  young  Gascon, 
in  any  sense  too  strong,  that  the  bosom  friend  of  the 
first  Prince  of  Wales  led  him  into  evil,  laid  enmity 
between  him  and  his  father,  and  finally  set  the  prince 
upon  a  course  which  tended  to  the  destruction  alike 
of  the  Gascon  and  his  patron. 

In  all  probability,  nevertheless,  Perot  was  not 
quite  so  vicious  as  he  was  described  to  be.  And  yet 
he  was  an  evil  friend  and  counsellor  to  the  prince. 
Setting  aside  as  totally  untrue  that  he  led  the  latter 
into  crimes  abhorrent  to  nature  itself,  there  was  evil 
example  enough  to  arouse  the  better  counsellors  of 
the  prince  to  strongly  reprove  the  youth  whom  the 
king  had  given  to  his  son  for  a  companion.  Thus, 
Bishop  Langton,  according  to  the  chronicle  of  Henry 
Knyghton,  the  Canon  of  Leicester,  often  rebuked  the 
young  Gascon  for  his  evil  conduct  with  respect  to 
Prince  Edward,  by  alluring  him  into  much  that  was 
base  and  wicked,  and  into  empty  frivolities  and  con- 
temptible follies.  Perot,  with  true  Gascon  impudence, 
treated  such  rebuke  and  rebukers  with  an  infinite 
disdain  which^secured  for  him  bitter  enemies.     If  he 


32  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

tempted  the  prince  into  the  path  which  led  to  their 
common  ruin,  he  would  seem,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
have  been  met  half-way.  Knyghton  describes  the 
prince  as  one  whose  person  exhibited  a  combination 
of  grace  and  strength ;  but  when  alluding  to  his 
morals,  he  says  —  with  a  saving  clause  of  "  if  what  is 
commonly  reported  may  be  believed"  ("j/  vulgo 
creditur'')  —  that  the  prince  was  naturally  inconstant, 
—  which  he  certainly  was  not  in  his  friendships, 
however  wayward  he  may  have  been  in  other  matters. 
The  canon  adds,  that  young  Edward  despised  the 
society  of  nobles,  and  "  stuck  to "  {adhcBsit)  that  of 
buffoons  and  minstrels  and  players,  and  stable  folk, 
and  labourers,  and  watermen  and  sailors,  and  to 
people  of  such  low  vocations  generally.  In  addition, 
Knyghton  records  that  he  was  addicted  to  drinking, 
and  was  so  talkative  in  his  cups,  that  he  betrayed  the 
secrets  of  his  friends.  Light  of  hand  as  of  tongue, 
under  such  circumstances,  he  would  strike  bystanders 
for  slight  cause;  and,  in  short,  says  the  Leicester 
canon,  the  prince  was  ever  more  ready  to  follow  the 
advice  of  others  than  his  own  counsel  (which,  be  it 
said,  has  been  often  profitably  done  by  the  wisest  of 
men)  ;  he  was  lavish  in  giving,  we  are  told,  magnifi- 
cent in  his  convivial  entertainments,  and  "  more  ready 
to  promise  than  to  perform." 

On  such  a  nature,  the  vivacious,  bold,  clever, 
crafty,  and  ambitious  Gascon  could  easily  work  to 
bad  purpose.  The  more  easily,  perhaps,  after  the 
death  of  his  father,  which  event  is  fixed  by  an  entry 
from  the  same  register  which  makes  record  of  the 
father's  arrival  in  England,  and  which,  under  the  date 
of  1 302,  states  that  "  two  cloths  of  silk  were  granted 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  33 

by  the  king  for  the  ceremony  of  the  funeral  of  Arnold 
de  Gaveston,  knight,  deceased  at  Winchester." 

The  Day  Book  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Wardrobe 
(published  last  century  by  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quaries) enables  us  to  learn  something  of  the  every- 
day life  of  the  prince  at  this  time.  On  several  days 
he  is  present  in  the  old  chapel  at  Windsor  while  the 
oblations  made  for  the  souls  of  deceased  men  of  note 
are  being  divided.  On  other  occasions,  he  has  what 
would  now  be  called  musical  parties.  The  names  of 
the  artists  are  not  given,  but  due  notice  is  taken 
of  the  sums  paid  for  their  minstrelsy.  Then,  anon, 
there  is  an  incident  which  must  have  made  the  court- 
iers hilarious.  The  king,  queen,  and  prince,  had 
each  his  or  her  particular  tailor  —  the  cissor  of  that 
day  working  indifferently  for  men  or  women.  John, 
the  king's  tailor,  had  received  what  was  due  to  him 
for  making  robes  for  the  king,  but  the  prince,  seem- 
ing to  think  the  pay  exorbitant,  impounded  the  tailor, 
and  compelled  him  to  make  another  set  of  robes  for 
the  prince  out  of  the  allowance  made  to  John  by  the 
king !  Thus,  the  cheating  of  tailors  was  a  fashion 
set  by  a  high  authority. 

The  other  entries  in  this  book  refer  to  the  ex- 
penses of  the  prince  for  boating  on  the  Thames  — 
sometimes  from  Windsor  to  London.  Then  there  is 
the  famous  entry,  "  To  William  Bookbinder,  of  Lon- 
don, for  a  Primer  bought  of  him  for  the  use  of  Edward, 
the  King's  son,  £2.''  Some  entries  show  him  to  have 
been  a  frequent  writer  of  letters,  fuller  proof  of 
which  I  shall  show  in  a  succeeding  page.  One  item 
of  I  ox.  to  his  nurse.  Lady  Eleanor  of  Moulton,  adds 
another  name  to  the  list  of  ladies   to  whose  good 


34  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

keeping  the  prince  was,  in  his  childhood,  entrusted. 
I  have  already  shown  that  the  prince  did  not  forget 
Mary  of  Caernarvon,  and  I  find  in  Mr.  F.  Devon's 
description  of  certain  hitherto  unexamined  rolls  at 
the  Chapter  House,  that  four  years  later  than  the 
date  of  the  above  wardrobe  account,  the  prince,  then 
at  Wye,  wrote  to  Henry  Bray  and  the  bishop,  in 
favour  of  the  prince's  nurse,  Alice  de  Leygrave, 
directing  them  to  take  care  that  no  harm  come  to  her 
in  the  grant  respecting  the  marriage  of  her  daughter, 
thanking  them  for  their  courtesies  to  her,  and  pray- 
ing their  continuance.  The  prince,  it  is  well  known, 
was  extravagant  in  many  of  his  pastimes ;  and  there 
is  one  of  the  latter  which  has  sorely  puzzled  the  com- 
mentators. It  is  named  in  this  very  Wardrobe  Book, 
where  record  is  made  of  the  large  sum  of  loo^.  being 
paid  to  John  de  Leek,  the  prince's  chaplain,  as  the 
cost  of  his  Highness's  playing  at  "creag,"  and  at 
other  games,  "per  vices."  Some  persons  have  con- 
cluded that  the  term  implied  fishing,  while  the  grave 
member  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  who  edited 
this  wardrobe  account,  playfully,  not  to  say  auda- 
ciously, suggests  that  the  word  creag  may,  perhaps, 
serve  to  show  that  the  first  Prince  of  Wales  was 
acquainted  with  "  cribbage  !  " 

In  this  wise,  amid  the  storm  and  its  lulls  by  which 
the  kingdom  was  affected,  the  life  of  the  prince 
passed,  for  the  most  part,  joyously  on.  Often,  too, 
it  must  have  been  spent  in  a  tranquillity  for  which  he 
has  not  enjoyed  much  credit.  During  a  portion  of 
this  same  year,  1 300,  for  instance,  Edward  was  resid- 
ing at  Langley,  with  his  stepmother.  Marguerite. 
The  circumstance  is  only  worth  noticing  for  the  fact 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  35 

that,  whatever  the  locality  afforded  in  other  respects, 
it  did  not  suffice  to  supply  the  royal  table  with  fruit. 
Mr.  Blaauw,  in  one  of  his  numerous  contributions  to 
the  reports  of  the  Sussex  Archaeological  Institute, 
quotes  an  entry,  certifying  that  Nicholas  de  Gorham, 
fruiterer,  sent  the  prince,  from  London,  pears,  apples, 
nuts,  and  other  fruits,  to  the  value  of  twenty-one 
shillings,  save  a  penny. 

But  the  time  was  now  approaching  when  the  prince 
was  about  to  assume  increase  of  responsibility  with 
increase  of  dignity.  Hitherto,  he  had  been  styled 
"Lord  Edward,"  or  "the  king's  eldest  son,"  a  title 
which,  like  that  of  "  Child  of  France,"  was,  as  Selden 
remarks,  commonly  given  to  the  heir  to  the  throne 
who  had  no  other  distinctive  title.  The  same  learned 
writer  states  that  he  was  not  acquainted  with  any 
letters  of  creation  of  a  Prince  of  Wales  earlier  than 
the  document  which  conferred  that  title  and  its  privi- 
leges on  the  Black  Prince.  But  the  letters  patent 
for  the  investiture  of  Edward  of  Caernarvon  have 
been  since  discovered,  and  it  is  to  that  fact  that  I 
now  invite  the  notice  of  my  readers. 

That  indefatigable  archaeologist,  Mr.  Wynne,  search- 
ing among  the  Welsh  Rolls  in  the  Tower,  found  the 
enrolment  of  the  original  letters  patent,  by  which 
Edward  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Prince  of  Wales. 
A  copy  of  the  patent  will  be  found  in  the  "  Reports 
of  the  House  of  Lords  touching  the  dignity  of  a  Peer 
of  the  Realm."  It  is  in  Latin,  and  commences  to 
this  effect  :  "To  the  reverend  the  archbishops,  etc., 
health.  Know  ye  that  we  have  given,  conceded, 
and  by  this  charter  we  have  confirmed  to  our  dearly 
beloved  son  Edward  all  our  lands  of  North  Wales, 


36         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Anglesey,  and  Hope ;  and  also  all  our  lands  of  West 
and  South  Wales;  and,  indeed,  all  the  territory  of 
Wales  which  is  in  our  hands  on  the  day  of  the  com- 
pletion of  this  deed,  except  the  castle  and  town  of 
Montgomery,  with  what  may  belong  thereto,  and 
which  we  assigned  to  our  very  dear  consort  Margaret, 
as  her  dower."  The  deed,  which  thus  confirms  the 
grant  of  the  principality,  goes  on  to  make  equal  con- 
cession of  the  county  of  Chester  and  some  places  of 
less  note,  with  all  rights  and  privileges  and  profits 
connected  therewith,  among  which  is  enumerated 
that  to  be  derived  from  wrecks  at  sea.  So  that  in 
the  olden  time  a  wreck  like  that  of  the  Royal  Charter^ 
in  October,  1859,  would  have  been,  in  common  par- 
lance, a  "  Godsend  "  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  It  is 
then  declared  that  this  grant  is  made  to  the  prince 
and  to  his  heirs.  Kings  of  England,  in  perpetuity,  as 
they  had  been  heretofore  held  by  the  king  himself. 
The  king  immediately  claims  such  service  for  these 
gifts  as  he  rendered  to  his  father  of  beloved  memory, 
Henry  HI.,  who,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  conceded 
much  which  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  grant.  For 
what  Edward  of  Winchester  really  held,  he  doubtless 
rendered  the  requisite  homage;  but  he  never  pos- 
sessed the  Welsh  territory  completely,  as  his  son 
Edward  of  Caernarvon  did,  by  this  deed.  I  refer  my 
readers  to  the  copy  of  the  original  document  in  the 
Lords'  Reports,  adding  here  the  simple  fact  that  it  is 
witnessed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  five 
other  prelates,  five  earls,  and  "  by  others  ;  "  and  that 
it  is  subscribed  as  given  "by  the  king's  hand,  at 
Netteham  on  the  7th  of  February,"  of  the  year  1301 ; 
the  twenty-ninth  of  the  reign  of  Edward. 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  37 

It  is  observable,  however,  that  throughout  this 
charter,  young  Edward  is  not  once  styled  "Prince 
of  Wales ; "  the  first  time  of  the  occurrence  of  that 
title  in  a  solemn  legal  deed  is  in  that  given  at 
"Kemeseye  on  the  loth  day  of  May,  1301."  By 
that  document  he  is  made  possessor  of  the  town  and 
castle  of  Montgomery,  and  the  whole  of  the  princi- 
pality being  placed  under  his  government,  he  is  then, 
for  the  first  time,  distinctly  styled,  not,  as  before, 
simply  "  our  beloved  son,"  but  "  our  very  dear  son, 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales  and  Earl  of  Chester."  From 
this  tenth  day  of  May,  then,  1301,  may  it  be  said,  in 
the  words  of  an  old  Welshman,  that  Wales  was  con- 
quered for  its  gain  and  undone  for  its  advantage. 

Mr.  Courthope  {Somerset  Herald)^  in  his  edition, 
of  "The  Historic  Peerage,"  thinks  it  probable  that 
"  the  grant  of  the  principality  was  immediately  pre- 
ceded by  investiture  with  circlet,  ring,  and  rod  for 
the  principality  of  Wales,  and  by  the  girding  on  of  the 
sword  for  the  earldom  of  Chester ; "  and  the  learned 
"Somerset"  founds  his  conjecture  on  the  ground 
that  "  we  have  no  account  of  any  ceremony  attend- 
ant upon  the  creation  of  Edward  of  Caernarvon  to  be 
Prince  of  Wales  and  Earl  of  Chester." 

The  ceremony  of  investiture,  when  a  prince  first 
appeared  in  Parliament,  presenting  his  letters  patent, 
and  taking  his  seat  among  the  peers,  has  always  been 
one  of  great  pomp  and  solemnity,  although  the  cir- 
cumstances of  that  pomp  and  ceremony  have  varied 
under  different  reigns.  In  early  times,  the  chancel- 
lor administered  the  oath,  and  then  placed  on  the 
brow  of  the  prince  a  wreath,  for  which,  at  a  later 
period,  a  gold  coronet  was  substituted  ;  on  one  of  the 


38  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

prince's  fingers  the  same  official  put  a  golden  ring, 
and  deposited  in  his  hand  the  silver  rod,  emblem  of 
princely  rule.  The  whole  ceremony  was  fittingly 
concluded  by  the  father  kissing  his  son,  in  token  of 
affection  as  well  as  of  congratulation  ;  and  a  magnifi- 
cent banquet  crowned  the  glories  of  the  day. 

From  the  time  that  Edward  of  Caernarvon  was 
created  Prince  of  Wales,  the  accounts  of  the  princi- 
pality, in  connection  with  the  lands  he  held  and  the 
fees  due  to  him,  were  dated  from  the  year  in  which 
the  dignity  was  conferred  on  him.  Mr.  W.  E.  W. 
Wynne  ("  Archaeologia  Cambrensis,"  vol.  i.  143) 
notices  two  instances  —  one  in  a  receipt  from  Vivian 
de  Staundon  for  his  fee  as  constable  of  the  castle  of 
Harlech,  Merionethshire,  from  Michaelmas,  in  the 
sixth  year  of  Prince  Edward  (1306),  to  the  same  fes- 
tival in  the  following  year,  the  first  of  King  Edward 
(the  Second).  The  second  instance  is  afforded  by  a 
document  signed  by  John  le  Colliere,  referring  to 
pecuniary  matters  extending  from  Whitsunday,  the 
seventh  year  of  Prince  Edward  (14th  May,  1 307),  to  the 
Michaelmas  of  the  same  year,  the  first  year  of  "  King 
Edward,  son  of  Edward,"  a  title,  says  Mr.  Wynne, 
"commonly  given  to  Edward  II.,  and  to  him  only." 

Speed,  in  his  "  Succession  of  England's  Monarchs," 
shows  that,  by  whatever  title  called,  the  Welsh  had 
always  considered  Edward  as  their  prince.  His 
creation  "so  greatly  contented  the  Welsh,  because, 
in  regard  of  his  birthplace,  they  held  him  as  one  of 
theirs,  that  when  all  friends  did  afterward  forsake 
him,  they  always  stuck  most  loyally  unto  him,  ex- 
pressing wonderful  love  and  affection,  and  bewailing 
his   heavy  fortunes   in  woful   songs,  which  neither 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  39 

the  dread  of  his  enemies,  nor  length  of  time,  could 
ever  make  them  to  forget." 

The  prince's  household  was  now  placed  on  a  more 
splendid  basis  than  it  had  been  before  his  investiture. 
Its  spiritual  condition  was  cared  for  by  the  pontiff, 
Boniface,  himself.  The  Prince  of  Wales  had  asked 
a  small  favour,  and  the  Pope  accorded  it  in  a  grandil- 
oquent letter.  The  Servant  of  the  Servants  of  God 
writes  "to  his  noble  and  beloved  son,  Edward,  the 
eldest  born  of  our  dearest  son  in  Christ,  the  illus- 
trious Edward,  King  of  England,  health  and  benedic- 
tion," and  thus  proceeds  :  "We  hold  it  to  be  a  pious 
and  agreeable  thing  to  be  prompt  in  granting  favours 
which  regard  the  health  of  souls,  more  especially  to 
individuals  exalted  by  their  generous  dispositions, 
distinguished  by  the  purity  of  their  faith,  and  who 
are  devoted  to  God  and  the  Church.  Being  inchned, 
therefore,  by  thy  supplications,"  continues  Pope  Boni- 
face, "  we  grant  thee  this  indulgence,  by  the  author- 
ity of  this  present  document,  that  the  servants  and 
officers  of  thy  household,  commonly  owing  thee  obe- 
dience, whether  they  be  clerics  or  laics,  present  or 
future,  when  they  are  unable  to  have  access  to  their 
own  priest,  may  confess  their  sins  to  thy  own  pri- 
vate chaplain.  That  official  is  authorised  to  enjoin 
them  wholesome  penance,  unless  the  matter  be  of 
such  moment  as  to  specially  regard  the  Holy  See 
itself."  The  little  epistle  concludes  with  a  thunder- 
ing warning  to  all  men  not  to  impede  the  license 
here  granted,  on  pain  of  the  wrath  of  God,  and  of 
his  chief  apostles,  and  the  perilling  of  the  salvation 
of  the  evil-doers.' 

*  Rym.    "Act.  Foed.,"  v.  iii.,  A.  d.  1301. 


40  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

In  a  household  so  provided  and  favoured,  the  pres- 
ence of  a  wife  could  not  but  be  desirable ;  and  though 
young,  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  1303,  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  better  fitted  than  in  1299  to 
woo  a  princess  for  himself.  This  pleasant  work, 
however,  was  still  done  for  him  by  commission.  In 
the  present  instance,  perhaps  such  work  can  hardly 
be  so  qualified ;  for,  although  the  suitor  was  in  his 
nineteenth  year,  the  bride  was  only  in  her  ninth,  and 
the  preliminaries  to  the  wedding  were  as  uninterest- 
ing as  they  could  be  under  such  circumstances.  The 
lady  in  question  was  Isabelle,  daughter  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  King  of  France,  and  at  this  period,  four  years 
had  elapsed  since  the  sovereigns  of  England  and 
France  had  determined  on  this  unlucky  match.  But 
in  1303,  the  ceremony  of  affiancing  took  place,  and 
the  Earls  of  Lincoln  and  Savoy,  procurators  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  at  the  court  of  France,  in  set 
phrase  plighted  to  the  little  bride  the  words  of  troth 
of  Edward  of  Caernarvon.  The  child  listened  to  the 
words  repeated  to  her  by  Gill,  Archbishop  of  Nar- 
bonne,  whereupon  she  did  as  the  prelate  directed  her 
to  do  —  placed  her  little  hand  in  his,  in  token  of 
her  assent  to  a  union  which  had  been  sanctioned  by 
the  Pope.  The  actual  marriage  did  not  take  place 
till  after  the  accession  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the 
throne. 

Between  the  wooing  and  the  wedding,  his  sister, 
the  Countess  of  Holland,  became  a  widow,  and  re- 
married with  Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford  —  a  match 
which  brought  back  to  Bohun  estates  he  had  been 
compelled  to  surrender  to  the  king.  On  the  30th 
of  October,  1 303,  the  first  child  of  this  marriage  was 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  41 

born,  and  when  Robert  le  Norreys,  of  the  countess's 
household,  brought  word  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  of 
that  interesting  event,  Edward  manifested  his  pleas- 
ure by  putting  into  the  hands  of  the  messenger 
the  then  liberal  donation  of  £,26  1 3^.  4^.  With  his 
well-known  love  for  music,  we  shall  subsequently 
find  him  looking  after  the  musical  well-being  of  this 
sister's  private  chapel. 


CHAPTER   III. 

EDWARD   OF    CAERNARVON — THE   HISTORY   OF 
A   YEAR 

As  an  illustration  of  some  passages  in  the  life  of 
the  first  Prince  of  Wales,  and  of  the  customs  and 
morals  of  the  times,  there  is  a  document  in  the  Rolls 
House  which  is  of  the  greatest  value.  The  docu- 
ment or  roll  in  question  was  discovered  eleven  years 
since,  by  Mr.  Frederick  Devon.  It  is  of  the  thirty- 
third  year  of  Edward  L,  1304,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
then  being  twenty  years  of  age,  and  it  contains 
copies  or  abstracts  of  between  seven  and  eight 
hundred  of  the  prince's  letters. 

Mr.  Devon  conjectures  that  "from  what  must 
have  been  the  extent  of  this  roll  five  centuries  and 
a  half  since,  and  in  its  perfect  state,  it  would  be 
reasonable  to  infer  the  existence  of  a  complete 
system  of  registration  or  enrolment  of  the  private 
letters  of  the  prince."  It  is  for  us  to  hope  that 
further  discoveries  of  the  familiar  correspondence  of 
Edward  and  other  historical  personages,  who  are  less 
to  be  heard  than  heard  of  in  history,  may  yet  help 
to  elucidate  characters  round  which  there  have  long 
settled  much  uncertainty,  obscurity,  and  doubt. 

In  the  roll  illustrating  this  year  of  the  prince's 
life,  he  presents  himself  to  us  under  various  aspects. 

42 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  43 

Frequently  he  is  exerting  himself  in  providing  for 
old  disabled  servants,  or  for  particular  friends  —  not 
at  his  own  cost,  however,  except  in  rare  instances, 
but  at  that  of  the  persons  or  communities  to  whom 
the  prince  addresses  himself.  For  instance,  he  writes 
from  Sunbury,  on  the  1 8th  of  May,  to  the  Abbot  of 
Chertsey,  a  letter  the  purport  of  which  is  to  recom- 
mend the  bearer,  Robert  le  Gaytere,  the  "beloved 
valet"  of  the  prince,  to  the  reverend  abbot.  The 
"beloved  valet"  is  described  as  being  incapable  of 
duty,  from  his  wounds,  and  the  abbot  is  requested 
to  provide  for  the  sufferer  what  his  condition  may 
require.  It  appears  that  the  "valet "  travelled  under 
charge  of  the  king's  surgeon,  Roger  Cautin,  who  is 
also  commended  to  the  abbot's  hospitality. 

Two  days  subsequently,  the  prince,  then  at  Ken- 
nington,  concerns  himself  touching  the  welfare  of 
another  "  valet "  of  his  household,  one  John  Makerel, 
who  had  been  named  to  the  Prior  of  Twynham  as 
a  person  who  was  to  be  provided  for  by  the  prior. 
To  a  preceding  letter  no  reply  had  been  sent,  at 
which  the  prince  much  wonders,  requiring  at  the 
same  time  such  an  answer  now  as  may  be  satisfac- 
tory to  John  Makerel's  patron. 

Ere  a  week  has  expired  —  namely,  on  the  26th  of 
May  —  the  indefatigable  prince  is  again  occupied 
with  requesting  others  to  recompense  the  fidelity  of 
another  of  his  servants.  On  this  occasion,  it  is 
Walter  "  Reymond,"  the  keeper  of  the  prince's  ward- 
robe. Being  no  longer  careful  to  look  after  robes, 
the  prince  fancies  he  may  be  suitable  for  the  Church. 
At  all  events,  he  writes  from  Langley  to  the  Abbot 
of    Westminster,    to    prefer   "  Reymund "   to   some 


44         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ecclesiastical  benefice,  as  soon  as  one  should  offer. 
He  is  not  particular  as  to  what  benefice.  Prince 
Edward,  on  this  occasion,  does  not  seem  to  have 
expected  that  his  demand  could  be  immediately 
attended  to ;  but  meanwhile,  he  is  not  forgetful  of 
his  client,  but  asks  the  Abbot  of  Westminster  to 
assign  to  him  a  competent  pension  till  a  fitting 
benefice  should  be  vacant. 

The  king's  confessor,  at  this  time,  appears  to  have 
had  charge  of  less  delicate  matters  than  the  care  of 
the  sovereign's  soul.  Edward  of  Winchester  left 
to  him,  occasionally,  the  settling  of  certain  of  his 
old  servitors  in  comfortable  offices  or  sinecures.  The 
prince  heard  that  Father  Lucas  had  been  thus  com- 
missioned with  regard  to  several  of  the  king's  ser- 
geants-at-arms ;  and  forthwith  the  heir  to  the  throne 
bethinks  him  of  a  servant  of  his  own,  one  Colin 
Artaud ;  in  behalf  of  whom  an  epistle  is  sent  from 
Langley  on  the  6th  of  June,  begging  provision  for 
a  man  who  had  not  only  served  the  king,  but  the 
queen,  the  prince's  brothers,  and  the  prince  himself. 

For  ecclesiastical  favours,  the  English  priors  and 
abbots  are  applied  to  in  their  several  turns.  Here, 
in  June,  a  note  is  addressed  to  the  Prior  of  Olveston, 
who  is  pleasantly  besought  to  find  a  piece  of  prefer- 
ment for  the  prince's  chaplain.  Sir  Geoffrey  de 
Castre.  The  prince  modestly  asks  for  some  bene- 
fice in  their  gift,  and  "  as  soon  as  possible."  A  pen- 
sion, meanwhile,  from  the  prior's  house  is  named  as 
an  arrangement  that  would  agree  with  Sir  Geoffrey's 
views ;  and  as  the  prince  had  hitherto  applied  to  the 
prior  on  this  subject  without  success,  he  now  prays 
that  his  request  may  be  graciously  acceded  to,  and 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  45 

that  the  prior  will  speedily  act  in  this  matter  in 
a  way  that  will  please  the  prince. 

Three  days  only  have  elapsed  when  young  Edward, 
again  from  Langley,  turns  to  another  abbot,  —  of 
Eynesham,  —  and  having  the  advancement  of  Adam 
de  Carleton  much  at  heart,  looks  to  the  abbot  to 
effect  this  in  a  liberal  and  courteous  manner,  "that 
his  good  wishes  may  be  shown,  and  the  prince 
thereby  bound  to  act  well  to  him." 

Though  the  prince  was  about  this  time  grievously 
out  of  favour  with  his  father  because  of  certain 
unprincely  conduct  hereafter  to  be  noticed,  the 
writing  or  dictating  of  letters  continued  without 
intermission.  There  were  still  protdg^s  for  whose 
welfare  he  was  to  trouble  other  people.  He  had 
knocked,  as  it  were,  at  many  a  priory  or  abbey  gate, 
and  it  is  now  at  the  doorway  of  the  convent  at 
Coventry  that  a  messenger  dismounts  with  a  letter 
from  the  prince,  written  at  Battle,  and  dated  the 
28th  June.  It  is  the  old  story.  A  "little  thing" 
had  been  asked  of  the  prior  and  convent  for  the 
prince's  "dear  clerk,  Sir  William  de  Melton,"  and 
they  had  exhibited  indications  of  presenting  him  to 
the  church  at  Southam.  The  prince  is  astonished, 
remarking  at  the  same  time  that  "  the  church  is  not 
worth  thirty  marks  a  year  more  than  his  pension ; 
and  therefore  is  not  sufficient  for  his  support." 
Urgent  is  the  appeal  for  Sir  William,  and  Prince 
Edward  prays  prior  and  convent  to  do  what,  he 
remarks,  they  had  "often  been  required  to  do 
before." 

There  was  seldom  a  benefice  vacant,  that  Edward 
of  Caernarvon  did  not  think  of  some  old  retainer  of 


46         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

his  own  who  could,  more  or  less  satisfactorily,  fill 
it.  Thus,  at  the  end  of  June  this  year,  there  died 
that  shameless  pluralist.  Sir  Giles  Daudenard,  who 
held  prebends  in  Ripon,  Chichester,  and  Hastings. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  would  fain  have  preferred  to 
these  his  good  friend,  Sir  Walter  "  Renaud ; "  but 
the  triple  appointment  was  in  the  king's  hands,  and 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was  the  last  person  likely  to  find 
favour  at  such  hands.  The  prince,  however,  in  his 
character  of  solicitor,  was  never  without  resource. 
He  accordingly  writes  from  Wye,  on  the  2d  of  July, 
to  the  queen.  He  reminds  his  stepmother  that  he 
dared  not  make  any  request  whatever  to  the  king, 
but  he  prays  her  Highness  to  interest  herself  in 
obtaining  one  of  the  three  benefices  —  the  prebend 
of  Ripon  —  for  Sir  Walter. 

Having  done  this,  he  on  the  same  day  again 
shakes  a  priory  gate  with  his  solicitations,  or  rather 
sharp  requests  (for  the  prince  had  hitherto  begged 
in  vain)  to  the  prior  of  the  hospital  of  Dover,  to 
grant  the  right  of  a  brother,  and  a  yearly  robe  for 
life,  to  Nicholas  Archer  of  that  town,  and  he  now 
reminds  him  of  the  neglect,  and  prays  that  it  may  be 
remedied. 

I  have  noticed  in  a  previous  page  (p.  34)  the  acts 
of  kindness  performed  by  the  prince  in  behalf  of  his 
nurse,  Alice  de  Leygrave.  In  the  same  month,  July, 
Edward  applied  to  the  Abbot  of  Chester,  sending  to 
him  his  old  Welsh  servant,  Yeman  ap  Llewelyn,  who 
is  so  feeble  that  he  can  no  longer  fitly  serve  the 
prince,  and  praying  the  abbot  to  receive  and  support 
him  in  his  house.  How  this  request  sped,  it  were 
bootless  to  inquire,  and  would  not  profit  us  much  to 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  47 

know;  but  it  is  clear  that  the  desires  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  were  often  entirely  disregarded  by  the  per- 
sons to  whom  they  were  expressed.  Even  the  small- 
est favours  asked  were  sometimes  silently  neglected  ; 
and  such  a  small  matter  as  a  "  bedelry  "  in  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  which  the  prince  had  asked  of  William 
Russel,  the  warden  of  the  island,  for  his  "valet," 
Michael  de  Leybrok,  having  been  uncivilly  passed 
over,  the  prince,  in  a  letter  from  Sunning,  dated  28th 
July,  "wonders  much  that  his  previous  request  for 
the  same  had  not  been  regarded." 

On  the  loth  September,  the  prince,  who  was  con- 
stantly changing  his  place  of  residence,  not  resting 
many  days  and  nights  in  the  same  locality,  was  at 
Windsor,  and  thence,  on  the  day  indicated,  he  for- 
warded a  missive  —  not  to  abbot  or  prior,  nor  for  a 
dear  clerk  or  a  valet,  but  to  the  warden  and  scholars 
of  Merton  College,  Oxford.  This  time  it  was  to 
gratify  not  a  friend  or  servant  of  his  own,  but  one 
of  a  friend,  namely.  Sir  John  de  Londres,  a  priest 
in  residence  at  Windsor,  at  whose  prayer  the  prince 
requested  the  college  authorities  just  named  to  re- 
ceive John  de  Hoo  and  his  brother  William  into  their 
company,  to  reside  as  scholars.  This  request  was 
probably  made  to  help  two  dunces  to  a  position  which 
they  could  not  easily  have  attained  without  the  pro- 
tection of  the  prince. 

On  one  occasion,  young  Edward's  interference  is 
exercised  for  a  singular  purpose.  There  was  a  com- 
mon and  notorious  robber  at  large  at  this  time,  named 
Peter  de  Weswyk.  Whether  he  had  grown  weary  of 
his  calling,  or  had  a  sincere  desire  to  altogether  re- 
form and  Hve  cleanly  —  or  whether  he  simply  had 


48         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Strong  and  natural  inclination  to  save  his  neck,  Peter, 
for  whatever  reason,  had  applied  to  the  Bishop  of 
Ely  for  permission  to  come  in  and  make  his  pur- 
gation. To  this  course  the  bishop  had  assented. 
There  seems  to  have  been  something  in  common 
between  the  prince  and  the  robber;  and  Edward 
wrote,  in  October,  to  the  bishop  to  "hinder  his 
purgation  as  much  as  he  can."  The  prince  puts 
the  prelate  on  his  guard  against  those  who  may 
speak  for  the  bandit  Peter,  as  persons  likely  to 
take  false  oaths ;  and  of  the  robber  himself,  Edward 
remarks  that  he  has  such  hatred  to  the  prince  that 
no  favour  should  be  shown  him.  The  dislike  must 
have  been  intense  and  mutual;  and  one  might  lose 
oneself  in  conjecture  now  at  trying  to  divine  what 
there  could  have  been  between  a  common  and  noto- 
rious robber  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  that  should 
induce  the  latter  to  stand  between  the  poor  wretch 
and  his  purgation,  and  to  bend  his  neck  in  the  direc- 
tion of  further  crime  and  the  gallows.  Subjoined  is 
the  note  itself : 

To  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Ely  [Robert  Orford\ 

"Greeting  and  affectionate  love.  Whereas  we 
have  heard  that  Peter  de  Weswyk,  who  is  a  noto- 
rious common  robber,  and  who  was  committed  to 
your  prison  as  such,  is  about  shortly  to  make  his 
purgation,  and  that  you  have  granted  unto  him  that 
he  may  make  the  same;  we  do  pray  you  affection- 
ately that,  for  the  eschewing  of  the  false  oaths  of 
those  who  are  about  to  purge  him,  and  other  evils 
that  may  happen,  you  will  put  in  the  way  of  such 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  49 

purgation  such  impediments  as,  for  the  love  of  us, 
you  may.  For  he  has  taken  such  a  spite  against 
us  and  ours,  that  we  would  not  willingly  have  it  that 
grace  or  favour  were  shown  unto  him.  Given,  etc., 
at  Quenetone,'  the  27th  day  of  October.'* 

We  have  seen  the  anxiety  of  Edward  to  place  the 
beloved  valets,  who  had  become  incapable  of  serving 
him,  in  comfortable  circumstances.  He  is  no  less 
desirous  of  seeing  them  gratified  (not  at  his  own 
expense)  while  they  are  still  of  his  household.  As 
a  sample  of  this  may  be  mentioned  the  case  of  a 
"beloved"  individual  of  this  class,  named  Michael 
Le  Taillur.  Upon  this  highly  valued  official  certain 
rude  men  of  London  had  committed  an  outrage  — 
some  assault,  probably,  for  the  assailants  had  been 
condemned  "  to  pay  twenty  marks  as  amends  thereof." 
The  convicted  defendants  must  have  been  at  large, 
and  with  no  intention  of  paying  the  fine  to  the  out- 
raged and  beloved  Michael.  Michael's  master,  how- 
ever, was  not  so  minded  to  let  it  pass.  Resolved 
that  the  score  of  marks  should,  accordingly,  compen- 
sate in  Le  Taillur's  pocket  for  the  anguish  inflicted 
on  his  person,  the  prince  wrote  to  the  Mayor  of  Lon- 
don, directing  that  official  to  bring  the  offenders  to 
account,  and  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  compel  pay- 
ment of  the  mulct,  which  had  been  often  applied  for, 
but  which  had  not  hitherto  been  paid. 

When  the  prince  thus  interfered  for  his  valet,  he 
was  at  Langley  —  the  note  is  dated  8th  June.  On 
the  2 2d  of  the  same  month  he  was  at  Midhurst, 
where  he  again  interposed  in  a  matter  of  justice. 

'  Probably  Kennington. 


50         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

This  time  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Justice  Brabazon  in  ref- 
erence to  a  case  which  the  prince  mentions  as  only- 
having  heard  of,  but  in  which  he  was,  probably,  more 
intimately  interested.  What  he  had  heard  of  was  to 
the  effect  that  "  Mankin,  the  armourer,  a  burgess  of 
London,  was  in  prison,  by  indictment  of  some  of  his 
annoyers,"  and  the  prince  begged  Justice  Roger  Bra- 
bazon "to  see  that  the  inquest  for  his  trial  be  not 
taken  from  his  accusers,  and  that  reasonable  chal- 
lenge of  the  jury  may  be  allowed  him." 

For  friends  in  trouble  abroad,  as  well  as  for  clients 
at  home,  Edward  was  equally  indefatigable.  There 
is  a  pleasing  instance  of  this  in  a  letter  addressed 
from  Yateley,  on  the  loth  of  August,  to  Amaneu  de 
Labret,  ambassador  from  the  Pope  to  the  King  of 
England.  Some  time  previously,  a  certain  Berd  de 
Friscombald  had  made  himself  so  agreeable  to  the 
prince  by  services,  the  nature  of  which  is  not  men- 
tioned, that  on  Berd  falling  into  trouble  in  Italy,  the 
prince  felt  bound,  as  he  says,  to  exert  himself  for 
Berd's  rescue,  in  order  that  he  might  "see  how  his 
services  have  been  valued." 

The  trouble  into  which  Berd  had  fallen  was  of  a 
domestic,  but  painful  nature.  The  prior  and  monks 
of  the  Augustin  convent  at  Florence  had  stolen  from 
him  his  son,  a  boy  thirteen  years  old,  and,  in  spite  of 
his  tender  age,  had  clothed  him  in  the  habit  of  their 
order.  The  kidnapping  was  as  complete  in  its  way 
as  that  of  the  little  Jew  boy  Mortara,  in  Rome,  or  of 
children  here  at  home  by  respectable-looking  priests, 
who  commit  the  act  of  theft,  and  then  unblushingly 
deny  it.  The  good-natured  and  indignant  Prince  of 
Wales  did  for  young  Bonacors,  the  son  of  his  poor 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  51 

friend  Berd,  what  no  Roman  Catholic  potentate  has 
cared  to  do  for  later  victims  of  this  child-stealing 
system.  Edward  pointed  out  the  cruelty  of  stealing 
the  boy,  and  then  shutting  him  up  from  his  father 
and  friends ;  kept  so  strictly,  as  he  observes,  that 
neither  could  Berd  or  any  other  of  the  boy's  relatives 
communicate  with  him ;  nor  was  the  poor  little  friar, 
in  spite  of  himself,  permitted  to  express  any  of  his 
wishes  to  friends.  The  prince  requires  that  young 
Bonacors  should  be  restored  to  his  home,  that  he 
might  have  an  opportunity,  in  presence  of  his  family, 
of  freely  stating  whether  he  chooses  to  remain  with 
them,  or  to  return  to  the  religious  brotherhood.  It 
is  most  creditable  to  the  character  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  to  find  him  urging  this  request,  with  a  hearty 
hope  that  it  will  be  complied  with,  for  the  sake  of 
justice  and  his  old  friend  Berd  of  Friscombald.  The 
prince  had  the  affair  deeply  at  heart,  and  not  satisfied 
with  writing  to  the  papal  ambassador  alone,  he  ad- 
dressed notes  equally  urgent  to  Otho  de  Grandison 
and  Lord  Chastillon. 

To  Antaneu  de  Labret. 

"To  M.  Amaneu  de  Labret,  greeting  and  affec- 
tionate love.  We  do  especially  pray  you,  that  you 
will  be  assisting  unto  M.  Berd  de  Friscombald,  in 
procuring  a  letter  from  our  dear  father  in  God  the 
Pope  unto  the  prior  and  the  convent  of  the  friars  of 
St.  Augustin  in  the  city  of  Florence,  to  the  end  that 
they  may  restore  unto  him  Bonacors,  his  son,  whom 
they  have  invested  with  their  habit  (and  he  is  a 
young  child  of  thirteen  years,  according  to  what  we 


52  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

have  heard) ;  and  when  he  shall  be  with  his  father 
and  his  friends,  he  shall  choose  the  which  he  shall 
prefer,  to  remain  with  them,  or  to  return  unto  the 
said  order.  For  we  hear  that  he  is  kept  so  strictly, 
that  neither  his  father  or  his  friends  can  speak  to 
him,  nor  can  he  make  known  unto  them  his  wishes. 
And  be  ready  so  far  to  do,  upon  this  our  request,  that 
the  said  M.  Berd,  to  whom  we  are  much  beholden  for 
the  good  services  which  he  and  his  have  done  unto 
our  lord  the  king,  our  father,  and  unto  us,  may  be 
sensible  that  the  same  have  availed  him,  and  that 
we  urge  you  especially  to  consult  his  wishes.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Yateley,  the  loth  day  of  August." 

This  honest-hearted  correspondence  is  not  that  of  a 
young  man  who  has  no  respect  for  the  head  of  his 
Church,  or  who  sets  his  ecclesiastical  superiors  at  de- 
fiance. Only  a  month  previous  to  this  humane  inter- 
cession in  behalf  of  a  distressed  father,  robbed  of  his 
child,  Edward  had  written  from  Chartham  to  the 
Lord  Cardinal  of  St.  Mary,  in  Via  Lata,  to  congratu- 
late that  personage  and  his  brother  cardinals  on  hav- 
ing elected  to  be  Pope,  Bert  rand,  Archbishop  of 
Bordeaux  (Clement  V.).  The  prince  declares  that  his 
spirit  rejoices  in  the  Lord  at  the  selection  of  a  man 
so  useful  and  requisite  for  the  government  of  the 
Church  and  people.  To  the  expression  of  his  own 
content,  he  adds  that  of  the  certain  approval  of 
his  royal  father,  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  entire 
kingdom. 

To  the  pontiff,  thus  qualified  to  administer  justice, 
the  Prince  of  Wales  afforded  a  fine  opportunity  of 
distinguishing  himself  in  the  case  of  the  kidnapped 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  53 

boy  converted  into  a  friar.  I  regret  that  I  cannot 
record  the  result  of  Edward's  intercession  for  the  son 
of  Berd.  There  is,  indeed,  a  letter  of  the  12th  of 
August,  from  Sunning,  written  to  Sir  John  de 
Havering,  the  prince's  steward  in  Gascony,  two  days 
after  the  writer  had  stated  the  case  of  Bonacors  to 
the  Pope's  representative  in  London.  In  this  letter, 
the  prince  expresses  to  Sir  John  the  pleasure  he  had 
experienced  in  receiving  from  him  such  "good  news 
respecting  the  Pope."  This,  I  fear,  had  no  reference, 
anticipatorily,  to  the  affair  of  the  kidnapping.  What- 
ever it  may  have  been,  the  prince  gives  utterance  to 
his  desire  to  always  hear  such  news,  both  as  regards 
the  Pope  himself  and  his  affairs.  Sir  John  is  exhorted 
frequently  to  write  on  these  and  similar  pleasant 
topics,  **as  well  as  upon  any  other  matters  which  he 
thinks  the  prince  may  wish  to  know."  For  Sir 
John's  stewardship  of  the  bailiwick,  his  success  in 
quieting  the  turbulent,  and  maintaining  the  country 
in  tranquillity,  the  prince  expresses  himself  much 
pleased ;  and  exhorting  the  faithful  steward  to  perse- 
vere, stimulates  him  to  that  perseverance  by  promis- 
ing to  closely  look  after  Sir  John's  interests  in 
England,  while  Sir  John  is  furthering  those  of  the 
prince  in  Gascony. 

Of  letters  that  are  immediately  personal  to  the 
prince,  there  are  many  that  exhibit  him  in  a  remark- 
ably pleasant  light,  manifesting  an  amiable  and  grate- 
ful disposition.  Of  what  he  had,  he  gave  ungrudgingly 
to  the  friends  he  loved.  On  the  26th  of  May,  from 
Langley,  he  announced  a  gift  to  Louis,  Count  d'Ev- 
reux.  The  gift  consists  of  "  a  fine  trotting  palfrey, 
together  with  some  Welsh  harriers,  which  can  well 


54  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

discover  a  hare,  if  they  find  it  sleeping ; "  thereto  are 
added  "running  dogs,"  probably  gaze-hounds,  whose 
swift  chasing  of  the  hare  is  vouched  for.  Should  the 
young  count  not  know  how  to  manage  these  hounds, 
Edward  is  ready  to  send  him  any  body  or  thing  from 
Wales  to  help  him  to  that  end  —  even  "gentz  sau- 
vages  "  —  wild  natives  who  are  well  skilled  in  the  art 
of  teaching  the  management  of  hounds  to  the  young 
sons  of  great  lords.  The  prince  concludes  by  thank- 
ing God  for  his  good  health,  and  trusting  that  the 
count  is  in  equally  satisfactory  condition. 

Some  of  Edward's  letters  are  addressed  singularly, 
considering  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  written  in 
connection  with  the  subjects  treated  of.  It  is  not,  at 
all  events,  likely  that  in  these  days  a  Prince  of  Wales 
would  address  himself  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury for  the  loan  of  an  entire  horse.  Five  centuries 
and  a  half  ago  it  was  otherwise,  and  the  prince  having 
purchased  the  stud  of  the  then  lately  deceased  Earl 
of  Warren,  and  being  desirous  to  improve  his  breed, 
was  probably  not  wrong  in  asking  the  primate  for  a 
horse,  **  bon  pour  estaloun."  In  case  of  failure,  how- 
ever, he  applied  also  to  some  lay  knights,  and  letters 
for  borrowing  the  steed  alluded  to  were  addressed  to 
Sir  John  de  Northwode,  Sir  William  de  Etchingham 
(whose  parish  church  is  still  the  prettiest  object  to 
be  seen  between  London  and  Hastings),  and  Sir 
Robert  de  Burghersh,  —  all  country  gentlemen  of  the 
period,  who  had  pride  in  their  stables. 

One  evidence  of  the  refinement  of  the  prince's 
taste  is  shown  in  several  of  these  letters  which 
denote  a  love  for  music.  A  man  with  such  tastes 
is   certainly   not    consequently   a   very   good    or    a 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  55 

highly  intellectual  man  :  we  have  proofs  among  our 
own  princes  to  the  contrary ;  but  the  taste  is,  never- 
theless, a  refined  one.  One  of  the  notes  treating 
of  this  matter  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  young 
prince  maintained  a  juvenile  band;  for,  from  Ten- 
terden,  on  the  ist  of  July,  he  directs  Walter 
*'  Reginaud  "  to  procure,  in  London,  for  his  "  little 
players,"  who  seem  to  be  at  Tenterden,  a  pair  of 
trumpets,  good  and  strong  for  packing,  and  a  pair 
of  little  nakaireSy  or  kettle-drums,  for  Francekyn,  or 
little  Frank,  the  prince's  "nakerer."  This  note  was 
carried  from  Tenterden  to  London  by  Janyn,  the 
prince's  trumpeter,  who  had  with  him  also  patterns 
of  the  instruments  that  Walter  was  to  purchase. 

A  more  pleasant  instance  still  presents  itself  in  a 
letter  written  at  White  Waltham,  on  the  12th  of 
September.  The  Abbot  of  Shrewsbury  retained, 
in  his  pious  and  joyous  household,  a  famous  fiddler, 
whose  fame  had  reached  the  ears  of  Richard,  the 
prince's  rhymer.  The  latter  became  forthwith  desir- 
ous to  learn  the  art  and  mystery  of  the  crowdy, 
crowthy,  or  fiddle;  and  Edward  despatched  him, 
with  a  note  to  the  abbot,  begging  of  him  to  direct 
his  fiddler  to  teach  the  minstrelsy  of  the  crowdy  to 
Richard  the  Rhymer,  and  to  maintain  the  said  rhymer 
in  the  convent  till  his  musical  education  was  perfected. 
The  Prince  of  Wales,  not  too  liberally,  adds,  as  his 
assured  payment  of  such  services,  the  obligation  to 
be  thankful  for  it ! 

Besides  the  musical  excellence  of  his  own  house- 
hold, he  did  his  best  to  further  that  of  the  household 
of  his  kinsfolk ;  one  letter  here  showing  as  much,  in 
request  (made  at  Kennington,  October  the  2d)  to  that 


56         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Sir  John  de  Londres  for  whom  the  prince,  it  will  be 
remembered,  had  done  a  good  office  early  in  the 
previous  month,  praying  that  his  clerk,  who  had 
taught  his  children  to  sing,  will  go  and  stay  with 
his  sister  Elizabeth,  the  Countess  of  Hereford, 
to  teach  the  children  in  her  chapel. 

Mr.  Frederick  Devon,  in  his  introduction  to  the 
report  on  these  letters,  remarks  that  they  show  how 
affectionately  the  prince  remembered  and  spoke  of 
his  "  dear  mother."  True  as  this  is,  there  is  unfor- 
tunately a  remark  to  be  added  that  Prince  Edward 
uses  this  tender  and  natural  phrase  not  only  when 
speaking  of  the  mother  whom  he  lost  so  early, 
Eleanor  of  Castile,  but  also,  though  not  always, 
when  speaking  of  his  stepmother.  Marguerite  of 
France.  A  letter  written  at  Langley,  on  the  6th 
of  June,  addressed  to  John  de  Drokensford,  keeper  of 
the  king's  wardrobe,  prays  him  to  help  Ladalli  to 
recover  the  money  due  to  him  upon  the  king's  jewels, 
"  for  he  only  stays  in  this  country  on  account  of  that 
debt ;  and  the  prince  is  bound  to  help  him  for  his 
good  services  done,  and  because  he  is  of  the  country 
of  the  prince's  dear  mother ;  therefore  he  wished 
him  on  no  account  to  depart  complaining  of  the 
king  or  of  him.  Trusts  he  will  so  act  to  show 
how  he  had  this  business  at  heart  for  love  of  the 
prince." 

I  am  afraid  that  Edward  spoke  of  his  "dear 
mother  "as  he  did  of  his  "  dear  clerk "  or  his  **  be- 
loved valet ; "  nevertheless,  his  respect  for  the 
deceased  queen  is  manifested  in  a  letter  written 
at  Windsor,  on  the  3d  of  August,  to  Sir  John  de 
Berwick.       In    this    document    the    prince,    having 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  57 

heard  that  some  part  only  of  the  money  devised 
by  his  "dear  mother"  to  the  Prioress  of  Bromhale 
has  been  paid,  desires  that  the  last  will  of  his  mother 
be  fulfilled  for  the  quiet  and  good  of  her  soul,  and 
prays  that  the  money  in  arrear  be  paid  as  soon  as 
possible. 

On  the  very  next  day,  we  find  the  prince  treating 
his  stepmother  with  the  same  degree  of  respect, 
as  far  as  it  could  be  conveyed,  in  the  use  of  the 
term  already  referred  to.  The  letter  containing 
it  is  addressed  to  "  Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Holland." 
It  is  a  remarkable  letter,  too,  as  containing  a  refer- 
ence to  Gaveston  (Vascon  or  Gascon.?).  The  writer 
expresses  his  pleasure  at  hearing  from  the  countess 
of  the  good  estate  of  the  king,  the  queen,  and  her- 
self ;  and  thanks  God  that  his  own  health  is  in  good 
estate  also.  The  prince  further  notices  that  the 
king  had  allowed  him  two  "  valets "  to  live  near 
him  —  viz.,  John  de  Hausted  and  John  de  Weston ; 
and  he  proceeds  to  beg  of  the  countess  that  she  will 
pray  his  "  dear  mother  "  the  queen,  to  pray  the  king 
to  permit  him  to  have  two  other  "gentlemen  "  to  live 
with  him  —  namely,  Gilbert  de  Clare  and  Perot  de 
Gaveston.  If  he  might  have  them  also,  it  would 
much  alleviate  the  anguish  he  had  endured,  and 
still  suffers  from  day  to  day,  owing  to  the  directions 
of  the  king. 

The  reference  here  to  Perot  de  Gaveston,  or  Peter 
of  Gascony,  as  a  "  gentleman,"  may  be  accepted,  per- 
haps, as  settling  the  question  of  his  quality,  which 
has  long  been  disputed ;  and  although  exalted  by  the 
historians,  lowered  by  the  poets  and  popular  tradition. 

To  return  to  the  letters,  it  is  to  be  observed  that 


58  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  reference  to  Gaveston  is  not  as  to  one  who  had 
not  already  been  in  the  prince's  service,  but  to  one 
who  had  abused  his  office  and  misled  the  prince. 
The  cause  of  the  harsh  "directions  of  the  king," 
alluded  to  by  the  prince  in  his  Windsor  letter  of  the 
4th  of  August,  is  to  be  discovered  in  a  letter  from 
Midhurst  (Sussex)  of  the  previous  14th  of  June. 
This  letter,  addressed  to  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  relates 
"  that  he  arrived  there  on  Sunday,  the  1 3th,  where 
he  found  the  king,  his  father,  and  on  the  Monday,  on 
account  of  certain  words  related  to  have  been  had 
between  the  prince  and  the  Bishop  of  Chester,  he, 
the  king,  was  so  enraged  with  the  prince,  that  he  had 
forbidden  him  or  any  of  his  household  to  be  so  bold 
as  to  enter  his  house;  that  the  king  had  forbidden 
all  those  of  his  own  household,  and  of  the  exchequer, 
to  provide  anything  for  the  support  of  the  prince's 
household." 

This  narrative  refers  to  a  breaking  into  the 
bishop's  park,  in  company  with  Gaveston  —  as  tradi- 
tion relates,  and  riding  down  the  prelate's  fences,  and 
killing  his  deer.  The  wrath  of  King  Edward  was 
fierce,  but  the  prince,  albeit  offending,  waited  its 
subsidence  with  hope  and  respect.  He  remains 
at  Midhurst,  he  states,  awaiting  the  king's  pleasure ; 
and  to  recover  his  father's  good-will,  as  he  desires  to 
do,  the  prince  will  follow  him  humbly,  at  a  distance. 
A  prayer  to  the  earl  to  come  to  him  and  give  him 
the  aid  and  counsel  which  he  needs,  is  a  promising 
trait  in  a  young  and  seemingly  thoughtless  offender. 

The  anxiety  of  the  prince  appears  less  intense  in 
fact  than  in  words.  He  was  soon  occupied  in  the 
business  I  have  before   alluded  to,  of  getting  the 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  59 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  help  him  in  the  im- 
provement of  his  stud,  and  on  the  2 2d  of  June,  a 
letter  to  Walter  "  Reynaud,"  of  whom  he  was  a  fre- 
quent correspondent,  not  only  shows  a  mind  gaily  at 
ease,  but  betrays  one  of  the  weak  points  in  the  Prince 
of  Wales's  character,  —  his  love  of  finery.  On  this 
occasion,  he  has  heard  that  Marie,  Queen  of  France, 
and  Louis,  her  son,  are  coming  to  England.  He  must 
of  course  welcome  their  arrival  and  escort  them  inland. 
To  do  this  as  becomes  a  prince,  he  needs  must  have 
good  palfreys  and  fine  robes.  Accordingly,  Walter 
is  directed  to  purchase  "two  fit  and  good  palfreys, 
and  two  saddles,  with  the  best  reins  kept  by  Gilbert 
de  Taunton  ;  and  that  he  purchase  the  best  and  finest 
cloths  he  can  find  in  London,  for  two  or  three  robes, 
with  fur  and  cedeux  for  the  same,  and  to  send  them 
to  him  as  soon  as  he  can." 

In  about  a  month,  a  letter  from  Lambeth  to  the 
Countess  of  Gloucester  contains  the  prince's  thanks 
for  the  good  offices  of  his  sister ;  and  further,  a  com- 
forting assurance  that  the  information  she  had  received 
of  the  king's  harshness  toward  him  was  unfounded. 
His  father  had  at  least  allowed  him  the  necessaries 
which  he  had  once  refused.  Father  and  son,  how- 
ever, were  not  reconciled.  On  the  ist  of  September, 
at  Windsor,  we  hear  of  thanks  from  the  prince  to  the 
queen  for  the  trouble  she  had  taken  in  his  affairs. 
He  was  then  employing  Sir  Roger  de  CHfford  to 
negotiate  between  him  and  the  king ;  but  the  queen 
was  made  previously  acquainted  with  the  nature  of 
his  commission,  in  order  that  she  might  instruct  him 
in  the  way  most  hkely  to  find  favour  with  the  offended 
father.     Edward  prays  his  stepmother  to  listen  to  the 


6o         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

knight,  and  as  she  loves  her  stepson,  to  counsel  him 
in  this  matter,  and  to  reply  by  Sir  Roger,  as  to  her 
wishes  with^reference  to  the  prince.  He  would  seem 
also  to  have  engaged  an  intercessor  in  his  sister  Mary, 
to  whom,  on  the  7th  of  September,  he  sent  a  hare,  by 
Robert  de  Wygmore,  with  a  prayer  for  her  favourable 
offices  in  the  business  in  which  he  was  then  con- 
cerned. The  princess  was,  at  the  time,  forbidden  to 
visit  her  brother;  but  subsequently  the  prohibition 
was  raised,  and  Mary  was  to  have  an  interview  with 
Edward  at  Amesbury.  The  prince,  then  at  White 
Waltham,  was  pleased,  yet  perplexed.  He  evidently 
experienced  some  awe  of  his  irascible  sire.  A  Parlia- 
ment was  about  to  assemble,  and  the  king  might  at 
any  moment  command  the  prince's  presence.  That 
he  might  not  fail  to  attend,  if  summoned,  he  dared 
not  depart  from  White  Waltham,  and  was  reluctantly 
compelled  to  abandon  the  idea  of  yet  meeting  his 
young  sister. 

The  administration  of  the  prince's  affairs  seems, 'at 
this  period,  to  have  been  completely  in  the  hands  of 
the  king.  So  completely  was  this  paternal  control 
exercised  even  over  the  prince's  household,  that  he 
could  not,  of  his  own  free  will,  lend  the  services  of 
one  of  his  gentlemen,  who  held  his  appointment  of  the 
king  and  not  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  This  is  exem- 
plified in  a  letter  from  Kennington,  October  2d,  to 
an  earl,  supposed  to  be  of  Lincoln.  This  nobleman 
was  about  setting  out  on  a  mission  to  the  Court  of 
Rome,  and  he  desired  to  have  Miles  de  Stapleton  to 
manage  his  household.  The  prince's  reply  to  this  let- 
ter states  that  he  would  willingly  permit  the  earl  to 
take  any  knight  or  squire  of  his  establishment  that  he 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  6i 

might  choose  —  always  excepting  Sir  Miles ;  to  whom 
he  cannot  give  leave  to  transfer  his  services  to  the 
earl,  seeing  that  the  king  has  charged  Sir  Miles  with 
the  direction  of  the  prince's  household  and  affairs 
generally.  He  can  do  nothing  without  the  command 
of^the  king,  to  whom  the  prince  refers  the  earl. 

Notwithstanding  this  control,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
was  evidently  master  of  his  actions  in  some  of  the 
affairs  of  his  estate  and  household.  This  is  observ- 
able in  another  letter  written  from  Kennington,  on 
the  26th  of  October,  to  Walter  Reynaud,  to  whom  the 
prince  often  wrote,  with  remarkable  variations  in  the 
spelling  of  Reynaud' s  name.  The  letter  is  to  the  ef- 
fect that  the  king,  in  the  twenty-ninth  year  of  his 
reign,  had  granted  to  the  prince  the  land  of  Wales, 
and  subsequently  all  the  debts  due  to  the  king  in  that 
principality.  Under  this  grant,  the  prince  had  received 
from  Joan,  widow  of  Owen  de  la  Pole,  £120  as  part 
of  a  fine  due  to  the  king  on  her  marriage.  Mean- 
while, the  king's  Court  of  Exchequer  had  distrained 
the  property  of  Joan  for  this  debt.  The  prince  denied 
the  right  of  the  court  to  do  this.  He  clearly  and 
properly  held  that  whatever  portion  of  the  fine  remain 
unacquitted  was  due  to  him,  and  not  to  the  king ;  and 
he  accordingly  directed  his  agent  Walter  to  repair 
to  the  barons  of  the  exchequer,  and  obtain  the  release 
of  the  distress. 

Acts  of  this  nature  showed  that  the  first  Prince  of 
Wales  lacked  neither  spirit  nor  generous  feeling.  In- 
deed, men  who  had  suffered  wrong  had  recourse  to 
him  to  see  them  righted,  and  Edward  of  Caernarvon 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  dilatory  in  performing 
the  services  required.    We  have  an  illustration  of  this 


62  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

in  a  matter  regarding  the  Earl  of  Ulster  and  Eustace 
le  Poer.  The  former,  styled  by  Prince  Edward  his 
"dear  cousin,"  with  his  friend  Eustace  had  had  some 
feud  with  certain  "  men  of  the  court,"  who  must  have 
been  personages  of  great  influence,  for  they  were 
powerful  enough  to  throw  the  earl  and  Eustace  into 
prison,  and  to  call  down  upon  them  some  over-rigorous 
measure  of  "justice  "  at  the  hands  of  the  king.  For 
false  imprisonment  and  other  grievous  wrong,  thus 
inflicted  on  them,  they  turned  to  the  prince  for  re- 
dress. King  Edward  was  not  then  on  very  friendly 
terms  with  his  son ;  but  the  prince,  albeit  unable  to 
mediate  with  his  father  in  person,  determined  to  do 
so  by  deputy ;  and  he  accordingly  wrote  to  John  de 
Benstede,  praying  him  to  present  to  his  father,  "  at  a 
fitting  time"  (for  who  knew  the  wayward  and  iras- 
cible temper  of  the  king  better  than  his  son  ?),  the 
petition  of  the  earl  and  his  cosufferer ;  and  with  it 
the  prince's  own  letter  to  De  Benstede.  The  king 
had  already  assigned  justices  to  try  the  matter  on 
which  the  respective  parties  were  at  issue,  but  the 
prince  manfully  desires  John  to  beg  of  the  king,  in 
his  son's  name,  that  he  would  assign  such  justices  as 
would  redress  the  grievances  of  those  who  had  been 
wronged. 

With  these  evidences  of  active  good-will  before  us, 
we  may  the  less  wonder  that  the  prince  possessed 
friends  warmly  attached  to  him.  For  small  services 
from  these  he  returned  thanks  gracefully  and 
promptly,  and  repaid  the  services  themselves  with 
interest.  He  was  at  Purbright  on  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember, when  Sir  Hugh  le  Despenser  forwarded  to 
him,  by  a  servant,  a  present  of  some  grapes.     The 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  63 

prince  not  only  gratefully  acknowledged  the  kind 
homage,  but  entered  into  details  which  showed  his 
appreciation  of  the  pleasant  and  useful  gift.  Sir 
Hugh's  man,  he  says,  arrived  opportunely,  on  Sunday 
morning,  before  the  prince  had  broken  his  fast,  con- 
sequently, he  could  not  have  arrived  at  a  better  time ; 
to  eat  grapes  fasting,  being  a  healthy  regimen.  The 
prince  rewarded  the  attention  tenfold,  by  sending  Le 
Despenser  a  horse.  He  confessed,  indeed,  that  it 
was  but  "a  poor  beast ; "  but  he  will  send  Sir  Hugh 
a  better  as  soon  as  he  has  the  power  to  do  so. 

In  less  than  a  week  he  was  again  kindly  busy,  and 
apologising  for  failure  in  having  been  so  ;  as  may  be 
seen  in  a  note  to  the  "  Lady  Mary,"  his  sister,  whom 
he  prays  not  to  take  it  ill  that  he  has  not  sent  the 
wine  and  the  organs  to  her  convent,  according  to  his 
promise.  The  latter  he  had  ordered,  but  though  they 
were  at  Langley,  they  had  not  yet  been  sent  to  him. 
With  regard  to  the  wine,  he  had  ordered  his  men  in 
London  to  purchase  a  quantity,  but  they  had  hitherto 
been  unable  to  find  any  sufficiently  good  in  quality  to 
send  to  the  Lady  Mary's  convent  —  a  noticeable  fact ! 
The  convent  in  question  was  that  at  Amesbury,  where 
the  Lady  Mary  had  taken  the  veil  in  the  year  1289. 
It  was  there  that  she  was  to  have  been  permitted  to 
see  her  brother  when  he  was  in  disgrace,  and  he  was 
afraid  to  profit  by  the  permission,  lest  a  summons 
should  be  sent  to  his  residence  from  the  king,  and  he 
should  give  offence  by  failing  to  pay  it  the  required 
obedience. 

I  have  thus  indicated  the  nature  of  these  notes  or 
letters,  most  of  which  are,  by  the  neat  hand  of  a  sec- 
retary, written  in  Norman  French  ;  the  less  familiar 


64         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

and  more  official  letters  are  in  Latin,  or  an  abstract 
of  them  is  given  in  that  language.  The  letters 
addressed  to  relatives  are  certainly  creditable  to  the 
character  of  the  prince,  if  they  really  represent  his 
sentiments,  and  were,  at  least,  dictated  by  him. 
There  is  room  for  suspicion,  perhaps,  that  the  letters 
written  in  reference  to  his  quarrel  with  his  father 
were  written  as  they  are  because  the  prince  hoped 
that  the  persons  to  whom  they  were  addressed  would 
lay  them  before  the  king.  This  does  not  necessarily 
make  a  hypocrite  of  young  Edward  ;  for  as  he  dared 
not  write  to  his  father,  he  might  naturally  wish  that 
the  king  should  know  of  his  loving  and  obedient 
spirit  through  missives  addressed  to  his  sisters  or 
friends. 

I  proceed,  in  the  next  chapter,  to  give  some 
further  samples  of  those  early  royal  letters  hitherto 
unpublished. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  —  HIS  CHARACTER  AS 
DEVELOPED  IN  HIS  LETTERS 

Previous  to  gathering  from  the  letters  of  the 
first  Prince  of  Wales  manifestations  of  his  character 
in  its  moral,  social,  and  various  other  aspects,  I  will 
beg  permission  to  return  my  best  thanks  to  Mr. 
Blaauw,  Mr.  W.  E.  W.  Wynne,  and  Mr.  T.  Duffus 
Hardy,  for  various  services  and  suggestions  which  I 
owe  to  their  kindness ;  and  especially  are  my  acknowl- 
edgments due  to  Mr.  Henry  T.  Riley,  the  learned 
editor  of  "The  Chronicle  of  Croyland,"  and  of  the 
*'  Liber  Albus,"  for  his  cooperation  in  the  examination 
and  translation  of  these  time-worn  and  time-honoured 
documents. 

From  the  mass,  which  affords  a  wide  field  to  archae- 
ological inquirers,  I  submit  the  following.  The  first 
letter  has  reference  to  the  quarrel  between  the  Prince 
of  Wales  and  his  father. 

To  {Henry  de  Lacy)  the  Lord  Earl  of  Lincoln. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  the  Earle  of  Nicole  \sic\  health 
and  dear  friendship.  Know,  sieur,  that  on  Sunday, 
the  13th  day  of  June,  we  came  to  Midhurst,  where 
we  found  our  lord  the  king  our  father,  and  on  the  fol- 

65 


66         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

lowing  Monday,  on  account  of  certain  words  which 
were  told  him,  that  had  been  between  us  and  the  Bishop 
of  Chester,  he  is  so  angry  with  us  that  he  has  for- 
bidden us  that  neither  ourselves  nor  any  one  of  our 
suite  should  be  so  bold  as  to  enter  within  his  house- 
hold; and  he  has  forbidden  all  the  officers  of  his 
household  and  of  the  exchequer  that  they  should 
neither  give  us  nor  lend  us  anything  whatever  for 
the  sustenance  of  our  household;  and  we  have 
remained  at  Midhurst,  in  order  to  wait  for  his  good 
pleasure  and  his  pardon ;  and  we  will  at  any  rate 
proceed  after  him  in  the  best  manner  that  we  shall  be 
able,  as  at  ten  or  twelve  leagues  from  his  household, 
until  we  may  be  able  to  recover  his  good  pleasure, 
for  which  we  have  great  desire.  Wherefore  we  espe- 
cially entreat  you  that,  on  your  return  from  Canter- 
bury, you  would  come  toward  us,  for  we  have  great 
need  of  your  aid  and  your  counsel.  Given  under  our 
privy  seal,  at  Midhurst,  the  14th  day  of  June." 

On  the  day  that  the  reproof  alluded  to  in  this  letter 
was  given,  the  king  left  Midhurst  for  Cocking  and 
Chichester,  subsequently  passing  by  Arundel  and 
Lewes  to  Canterbury.  The  prince  followed  out  his 
penitential  programme,  and  kept  the  same  road,  but 
at  the  respectful  distance  indicated  in  his  letter. 

Disregard  to  an  officer  of  the  king  was  a  serious 
offence  in  the  eyes  of  Edward,  whose  anger  at  his 
own  son  for  using  insulting  words — as  some  say  to  the 
Bishop  of  Chester,  in  the  bishop's  court,  or  in  a  court 
where  that  prelate  was  present  —  was  so  well  known, 
that  notice  of  it  is  made  in  the  report  of  a  trial  which 
took  place  soon  after  that  incident,  as  an  illustration 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  67 

of  the  iniquity  of  the  offender,  one  William  de  Brewes, 
who  had  insulted  a  baron  of  the  exchequer  for  pro- 
nouncing against  William  in  a  suit  at  law.  De 
Brewes  was  severely  dealt  with,  on  the  ground  that 
such  disrespect  to  the  royal  officers  was  "especially 
odious  to  the  king,  as  was  openly  shown  of  late  when 
the  said  king  had  removed  his  first-born  and  dearest 
son  Edward  from  his  household  for  nearly  half  a 
year  because  he  had  uttered  certain  gross  and  bitter 
words  to  a  certain  officer  of  his ;  nor  would  he  per- 
mit his  own  son  to  come  into  his  presence  until  he 
had  made  satisfaction  for  the  offence  to  the  said 
officer." 

The  prince  strove  hard  to  provide  for  the  friends 
in  his  household  after  the  king's  ebullition  of  wrath ; 
and  he  had  to  petition  warmly  for  himself.  Thus, 
on  the  14th  of  June,  he  writes  to  his  old  tutor, 
Walter  Reynaud  :  "  Inasmuch  as  our  lord  the  king 
is  so  angry  with  us  on  account  of  the  Bishop  of 
Chester,  that  he  has  prohibited  us  or  any  one  of  our 
suite  from  entering  his  household,  and  has  also  for- 
bidden the  officers  of  his  household  and  of  the 
exchequer  to  give  or  lend  us  anything  for  the  suste- 
nance of  our  household,  we  send  to  you,  that  you 
may  devise  means  to  send  us  money  in  great  haste 
for  the  sustenance  of  our  household,  and  do  not  in 
any  manner  show  anything  of  the  wants  which  touch 
us  to  the  Bishop  of  Chester,  nor  to  any  person 
belonging  to  the  exchequer." 

I  have  noticed  the  prince's  rapid  movements  from 
place  to  place.  These  changes  were  sometimes  to 
suit  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  compelling  him 
to  seek  hospitality ;   sometimes  they  were  made  to 


68         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

bring  him  meekly  nearer  to  the  king ;  and  occa- 
sionally they  seem  to  have  been  made  at  the  royal 
command,  obedience  to  which  ameliorated,  for  a  less 
or  longer  period,  the  unpleasant  position  of  the 
offending  son.  Thus,  in  the  letter  (already  referred 
to)  to  Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Hereford,  he  writes : 

"To  THE  Sister  of  the  Prince:  —  Very  dear 
sister,  do  not  be  dismayed  at  these  news  which  you 
tell  us  they  chatter  in  the  parts  where  you  are,  about 
our  lord  the  king,  our  father,  and  us ;  for  it  is  quite 
right  that  he  should  say  and  do  and  ordain  concerning 
us  whatever  pleases  him,  and  we  shall  be  always  ready 
to  obey  all  his  wishes,  for  whatever  he  does  at  his 
own  pleasure,  so  is  it  for  our  profit,  and  for  love  of 
us ;  and  be  pleased  not  to  listen  to  anything  to  the 
contrary  whatever  they  may  tell  you.  May  the  Lord 
preserve  you.     Given  at  Tenterden,  July  i." 

And  again,  three  weeks  later,  he  writes  from  Lam- 
beth to  the  Earl  of  Gloucester,  who  had  evidently 
aided  the  young  offender  in  his  need :  "  Because 
you  have  so  kindly  given  up  your  goods  to  us,  we 
thank  you  very  dearly,  and  we  let  you  know  that  our 
lord  the  king,  our  father,  does  not  consider  himself 
so  ill-treated  by  us  as  some  people  perhaps  have 
made  you  believe,  for  he  wishes  and  has  commanded 
that  we  should  have  of  his  bounty  what  is  needful 
for  us." 

Throughout,  there  is  a  manifestly  honest  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  appease  his  father, 
not  only  by  obedience,  but  by  not  exposing  himself 
even  to  an  act  of  involuntary  disobedience.     I  have 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  69 

before  given  the  abstract  of  the  note  to  his  nun-sister 
Mary,  stating  why  it  was  out  of  his  power  to  meet 
her  at  Amesbury.  Here  is  a  similar  note  to  his 
sister,  the  Countess  of  Gloucester,  who  had  invited 
him  to  her  residence.  The  note  is  dated  "  August 
6."  "Know,  my  very  dear  sister,  that  we  would 
willingly  come  to  you,  but  my  lord  the  king  has  com- 
manded our  stay  in  these  parts,  near  Wyndesore, 
between  this  and  the  Parliament,  or  until  otherwise 
is  ordered,  and  we  wish  to  obey  his  commands  in  all 
things,  without  doing  anything  to  the  contrary. 
Very  dear  sister,  may  the  Lord  have  you  in  his 
keeping ! " 

That  the  son  was  correct  in  stating  that  his  father 
was  not  harsh  beyond  measure  with  him,  and  wished 
to  starve  neither  his  son  nor  his  soh's  household,  is 
proved  by  an  extract,  made  by  Mr.  Blaauw,  in  the 
second  volume  of  the  Reports  of  the  Sussex  Ar- 
chaeological Institute  (from  the  C.  R.  MSS.  E.  B. 
2042),  to  the  effect,  namely,  that  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  marks  {£66  is.  ^d.)  had  been  advanced  by 
the  king's  order  for  the  prince's  expenses.  The 
stoppage  of  supplies,  too,  for  the  prince  and  his 
attendants,  had  reference  apparently  only  to  substan- 
tial meats,  and  not  to  sauces,  fruits,  condiments,  or 
lights,  wherewith  to  enjoy  themselves.  In  the  last 
work  named  above,  the  reader  curious  in  such  mat- 
ters may  peruse  a  long  list  of  deliveries  made  this 
very  year  to  the  Prince  of  Wales's  household  out  of 
the  stores  of  the  king's  wardrobe.  The  list  includes 
ample  supplies  of  almonds,  rice,  sugar,  fruit,  jellies, 
and  gingerbread,  candied  orange,  powdered  cinnamon 
to  strew  on  bread  or  fish,  aromatics,  various  peppers. 


70  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

nutmegs,  and  pickles,  baskets  of  figs,  raisins,  dates, 
and  currants  —  and  1,727  pounds  of  wax,  to  shed 
light  over  the  consumers  of  these  dainty  articles. 

For  more  substantial  fare,  the  prince,  naturally 
hungry,  applied  to  the  Earl  de  Warenne,  his  "  dear 
cousin,"  entreating  him  "  to  be  pleased,  for  the  love  of 
us,  to  give  one  or  two  does  to  our  well-beloved  John 
de  Monteney ;  and  may  the  Lord  preserve  you ! " 
And  here  may  be  cited  the  text  of  the  letter,  show- 
ing how,  in  the  love  of  venison,  he  forgot  not  his 
love  for  his  friends ;  and  in  which  he  asks  his  sister 
to  ask  the  queen  to  ask  the  king  to  grant  him  a 
very  great  favour,  the  companionship  of  his  valet 
Gaveston : 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  very  dear  sister,  my  Lady 
Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Holland,  Hereford,  and  Essex, 
health  and  dear  friendship.  Right  glad  are'  we  of 
the  good  health  of  our  lord  the  king,  our  father ;  and 
of  our  lady  the  queen,  and  of  yours,  which  we  have 
learnt  by  your  letters ;  and  as  to  ours,  we  let  you 
know  that  we  were  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God, 
when  these  letters  were  written  ;  and  inasmuch  as 
our  lord  the  king  has  granted  us  two  valets,  John  de 
Hausted,  and  John  de  Weston,  we  entreat  and  re- 
quest you  especially  to  be  pleased  to  beg  our  lady 
the  queen,  our  dear  mother,  that  she  would  be  pleased 
to  beg  the  king  to  be  pleased  to  grant  two  more 
valets  to  dwell  with  us ;  that  is  to  say,  Gilbert  de 
Clare  and  Perot  de  Gaveston ;  for  if  we  had  these 
two  with  the  others  whom  we  have,  we  should  be 
much  relieved  from  the  anguish  which  we  have  en- 
dured, and  yet  daily  suffer,  from  the  restrictions  at 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  71 

the  pleasure  of  our  lord  the  king.     Very  dear  sister, 
may  our  Lord  preserve  you." 

The  Gilbert  de  Clare,  mentioned  as  equally  dear 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales  as  Gaveston,  was  probably 
the  prince's  cousin.  They  were  subsequently  knighted 
together.  Two  days  after  the  above  letter  was  des- 
patched, the  prince  wrote  to  the  queen,  thanking 
her  for  her  happy  success  in  obtaining  for  him  "  the 
greater  part  of  the  servants  of  his  chamber  to  live 
with  him,  as  they  used  to  do."  But  the  writer  urges 
the  queen  to  intercede  further  for  Clare  and  Gaves- 
ton. It  was  this  persistence  in  behalf  of  the  latter, 
especially,  which  ultimately  brought  on  —  if  we  may 
believe  the  chroniclers  —  a  fearful  scene  between  the 
monarch  and  his  son. 

To  Her  Ladyship  the  Queen  of  England. 

"  To  his  most  dear  lady  and  mother,  from  Edward, 
her  dutiful  son,  all  reverence  and  love.  Most  dear 
lady  and  mother,  forasmuch  as  our  lord  the  king,  our 
father,  has  granted  unto  us  the  greater  part  of  the 
servants  of  our  chamber  to  live  with  us,  as  they  used 
to  do  ;  and  we  well  know  that  this  is  at  your  request, 
for  which  we  do  thank  you  as  affectionately  as  we 
know  how  to  do ;  we  do  pray  you,  most  dear  lady 
and  mother,  that  you  will  still  be  willing,  if  so  it 
please  you,  to  labour  for  us,  and  to  pray  our  dear 
lord  and  father  that  he  will  grant  unto  us  two  attend- 
ants \yalletz\  in  addition  to  those  whom  we  have ; 
that  is  to  say,  Gilbert  de  Clare  and  Perot  de  Gavas- 
tone.     For  truly,  madam,  if  we  had  these  two  in 


72  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

addition  to  the  others,  we  should  be  greatly  com- 
forted and  lightened  of  the  anguish  that  we  have 
endured,  and  do  still  suffer,  by  reason  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  our  said  lord  and  father.  Madam,  if  it  so 
please  you,  be  willing  to  have  this  matter  at  heart, 
and  bring  about  the  same  in  the  most  gracious  man- 
ner that  you  may,  so  affectionately  as  you  do  love 
us.  Madam,  our  Lord  have  you  in  his  keeping. 
Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Windsor,  this  6th 
day  of  August." 

The  next  note  exhibits  in  its  request  some  love  for 
venison,  and  his  own  inner  man.  It  appears  to  have 
been  a  secret  enclosure  in  the  preceding  letter. 

"Most  dear  Lady  and  Mother:  —  As  to  the 
matter  contained  in  this  letter,  be  willing,  if  it  so 
please  you,  to  believe  our  dear  servant.  Guillemot 
Pointz,  as  to  what  he  shall  tell  you  by  word  of  mouth 
on  our  behalf.  And  whereas,  my  most  dear  lady  and 
mother,  you  gave  unto  us  the  last  year,  in  your 
affectionate  kindness,  the  fat  deer  of  the  forest 
of  Odiham,  and  we  took  thereof  two  stags  only, 
we  do  pray  you  affectionately  that,  if  so  it  please 
you,  you  will  again  give  us  the  fat  deer  of  the 
same  forest  for  this  year ;  and  that  you  will  send 
unto  us  by  the  said  Guillemot  your  wishes  hereupon." 

The  following  are  samples  of  (sometimes)  his  readi- 
ness to  serve  his  friends,  at  others,  to  interfere  with 
the  course  of  justice,  or  to  support  the  rights  of 
ecclesiastics,  and  (often)  of  his  general  businesslike 
qualities : 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  73 

To  Simon  de  Leiburne. 

"  Whereas  we  have  heard  that  one  Henry  de  Nor- 
folk, your  servant,  has  lately  committed  violence  and 
outrages  upon  our  dear  clerk,  Sir  Walter  Reginald, 
at  his  church  of  Angreham,  such  as  beating  down 
his  corn,  and  selling  and  destroying  it  in  other  ways 
at  his  will,  and  wasting  and  carrying  away  other 
chattels  there  found  in  his  manor ;  and  that  his  people 
threaten  in  many  respects  to  subtract  from  and  dis- 
turb the  rights  of  his  church,  to  the  great  contempt 
and  grievous  damage  of  himself  —  we  do  command, 
and  do  pray  you  in  especial,  that  such  grievances  and 
acts  of  violence  you  will  chastise,  and  will  send  word 
unto  him  and  your  other  bailiffs,  and  command  that 

the   \  ^       ,  .       >  of  the  said  church  shall  be  saved 
(  franchises  ) 

unto  the  said  Walter,  according  to  the  feoffment  of 
the  first  founders,  and  in  such  manner  as  all  his  pred- 
ecessors have  held  and  used  the  same  for  all  time ; 
and  that  you  will  in  due  manner  redress  what  has 
been  done  therein,  for  the  love  of  us,  that  so  we  may 
be  the  more  especially  [gratified]  therein,  in  that 
the  said  Sir  Walter  has  no  occasion  to  seek  redress 
against  him  elsewhere.  And  what  you  are  ready  to 
do  as  to  this  matter  you  are  to  send  us  word  by  your 
letters,  through  the  bearer  hereof.  Given  at  Langele 
[Langley],  etc.,  25th  May." 

To  Sir  Ralph  de  Hengham. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  clerk,  Sir  Ralph  de 
Hengham,  justice  of  our  lord  the  king,  health  and 


74         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

good  love.  We  do  pray  you  in  especial  that  you 
will  hear  our  dear  and  well-beloved  Roger  Loveday, 
and  well  and  kindly  aid  him  in  his  business,  that  so 
his  right  may  be  saved  unto  him ;  and  that  you  will 
pray  Roger  Brabanzon '  also,  as  though  it  were  your- 
self, that  if  any  wrong  has  been  done  unto  the  afore- 
said Roger,  he  will  in  due  manner  redress  the  same. 
And  so  much  do  therein  for  our  entreaties,  that  the 
said  Roger  may  feel  that  he  has  been  aided  thereby, 
and  that  we  may  be  bound  to  thank  you  for  the 
same,  and  to  acknowledge  our  obligations.  Given  at 
Langele,  etc.,  26th  May,  in  the  33d  year." 


To  Sir  Eustace  de  Hacche. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved  knight 
M.  Eustace  de  Hacche,  health  and  good  love. 
We  do  thank  you  affectionately  for  the  good-will 
which  you  entertain  toward  us,  and  always  have 
entertained,  and  for  that  you  keep  better  worked 
[ntieuz  efnploie'\  your  manor  of  Peckesham,^  with  the 
appurtenances,  and  that  for  our  benefit  rather  than 
for  any  other  man  ^  in  the  world ;  and  that  it  is  not 
your  wish  to  make  any  bargain  with  us  except  at  our 
own  will ;  as  our  dear  servant  Rothiry  d'Espaigne  has 


*A  brother  justice  of  Hengham's.  This  Hengham  was  subse- 
quently punished  for  taking  bribes. 

*The  manor  of  Peckham,  in  Kent.  Peckham  in  Surrey  was 
included  in  that  of  Hatcham,  which  was  then  in  the  hands  of  the 
Burnett  family. 

'  From  this  and  the  concluding  words,  it  would  seem  that  the 
title  to  the  lordship  in  capite  of  this  manor  was  then  in  dispute. 
De  Hacche  was  only  a  tenant. 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  75 

informed  us  on  your  behalf.  Wherefore  we  send  you 
our  dear  clerk  John  de  Bohun,  and  do  pray  you  that 
you  will  cause  to  be  shown  unto  him  all  the  lands 
and  fields,  mills,  and  other  rents  and  homages,  and  all 
other  appurtenances  that  to  the  said  manor  pertain, 
and  the  certain  value  of  each  thing,  all  in  writing. 
For  we  wish  to  be  advised  upon  all  things  that  unto 
the  manor  belong.  And  with  him  we  send  our  ser- 
vant John  de  Karleford,  to  survey  the  said  manor 
and  the  lands ;  and  the  said  John,  our  clerk  (with 
your  aid  therein),  will  know  how  to  make  the  neces- 
sary deeds  secure,  such  as  befit  such  a  feoffment. 
And  upon  all  [these]  things  signify  unto  us  your  will, 
which  we  know  for  certain  is  favourable  unto  us. 
Our  Lord  preserve  you.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Lan- 
gele,  26th  May." 

To  Sir  Peter  de  Maulay  [and  others], 

"To  M.  Peres  de  Maulay,  M.  Edmond  Deincourt, 
M.  William  le  Vavassur,  M.  John  del  Isle,  justices  of 
our  lord  the  king,  health  and  good  love.  Whereas  we 
have  heard  that  a  great  assault  has  been  committed 
upon  Robert  de  Stoteville,  a  servant  [val/et]  of  our 
dear  cousin  Madam  Joan  Wake,  whereby  the  said 
Robert  is  maimed  for  life,  by  one  William  de  Saint 
Barbe ;  we  do  pray  you  in  especial,  that  you  will  be 
aiding  unto  the  said  Robert  in  recovering  his  fair 
rights  and  proper  amends  for .  the  said  assault.  For 
we  have  his  matter  much  at  heart,  by  reason  of  the 
good  and  loyal  service  which  he  has  done  unto  our 
cousin  aforesaid.  And  do  so  much  herein  at  our 
request,  that  he  may  be  sensible  that  our  entreaties 


76         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

have  well  availed  him.     Given  at  Langele,  the  27th 
day  of  May." 

To  Sir  William  Ormesby. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved  M. 
William  de  Ormesbi,  justice  of  our  lord  the  king, 
health  and  good  love.  Whereas  we  have  heard  that 
Mahen  of  the  exchequer  is  imprisoned  by  your  com- 
mand, we  do  pray  you  affectionately,  that  you  will 
send  your  letter  to  Sir  William  de  Carletone,  in  due 
manner,  as  speedily  as  you  can,  that  he  may  cause 
the  said  Mahen  to  be  delivered  upon  good  mainprise ; 
and  we  will  acknowledge  ourselves  greatly  indebted 
to  you  for  the  same.  And  if  the  offence  is  so  great 
that  the  law  will  not  allow  of  his  being  delivered  upon 
mainprise,  you  are  to  send  us  word,  for  certain,  as  to 
the  truth,  by  the  bearer  of  this  letter,  why  he  is  thus 
detained  in  prison.  Given  at  Langele,  under,  etc., 
the  3d  day  of  June." 

To  the  Mayor  of  London. 

"  To  the  Mayor  of  London,  greeting,  etc.  We  do 
pray  you  in  especial,  that  you  will,  for  the  love  of  us, 
show  unto  our  much-beloved  Hamond  Gresse,  who 
is  imprisoned  in  the  city  of  London,  as  we  have 
heard,  all  the  favour,  aid,  and  friendship,  that,  for  the 
love  of  us,  you  fairly  may,  to  the  end  that  he  may  be 
sensible,  and  may  perceive  that  our  entreaties  serve 
him  in  good  stead  with  you,  as  we  do  desire  to  be  the 
case.  And  we  shall  be  especially  bound  to  thank 
you  for  the  same,  and  to  acknowledge  our  obligations 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  77 

therein.     Given  at  Langele,  under,  etc.,  the  5th  day 
of  June." 

To  Sir  William  Howard  \and  another\ 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved  M. 
William  Howard  and  M.  John  de  Ashtone,  greet- 
ing. Whereas  our  lord  the  king,  our  father,  has 
assigned  you  his  justices  to  inquire  upon  oath  of  the 
reputable  men  of  the  county  of  Northampton,  as  to  a 
great  injury  which  has  been  done  unto  our  dearly 
beloved  in  God,  the  Friars  Preachers  of  Northampton, 
by  the  mayor  and  many  other  misdoers  of  the  town 
of  Northampton,  and  to  hear  and  determine  upon  the 
said  offence,  according  to  the  law  and  the  usage  of 
this  realm ;  and  we  have  it  greatly  at  heart  that  this 
offence  should  be  speedily  and  effectively  punished, 
and  full  redress  given,  by  reason  of  the  great  affec- 
tion that  we  have  for  the  Order  of  Friars  Preachers, 
for  many  causes  moving  us  thereto,  and  by  reason  of 
the  insolence  that  the  said  mayor  has  shown  us ; 
seeing  that  since  we  besought  him  by  our  letters 
in  behalf  of  the  said  friars,  he  has  done  them  still 
more  injury  than  he  had  done  them  before:  we  do 
pray  you  in  especial,  that  you  will  attend  to  make 
inquiry,  hear,  and  determine  as  to  the  said  offence 
with  all  haste  that  you  may,  and  use  all  pains  and 
diligence  that  it  may  be  punished,  and  redress 
given  as  effectually  and  peremptorily  as  possible, 
for  the  love  that  you  bear  unto  us ;  that  so  we 
may  be  enabled  to  acknowledge  our  obligations 
to  you  therein.  Given  at  Langele,  on  the  5th  day  of 
June." 


78         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 


To  the  Mayor  of  Northampton. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  the  Mayor  of  Northampton. 
We  besought  you  of  late  by  our  letters  in  behalf  of 
our  dear  and  especially  beloved  in  God,  the  Friars 
Preachers  of  Northampton  (unto  which  order,  for 
many  reasons,  we  are  especially  indebted),  that  you 
would  be  favourable  unto  them,  and  aiding  them  in 
all  matters  which  they  might  have  to  transact  with 
you ;  and  in  particular,  that  you  would  not  allow  any 
innovation  to  be  made  or  begun  to  the  detriment  or 
the  aggrievance  of  them.  And  now  we  have  heard 
that,  despising  our  said  entreaties,  you  yourself,  in 
your  own  person,  together  with  many  other  misdoers, 
have  broken  the  doors  and  locks  of  the  said  friars  at 
Northampton  by  force  of  arms,  and  have  beaten  down 
their  trees  there  growing,  and  have  committed  other 
great  injuries  and  outrages  against  them  ;  to  the  very 
great  contempt  of  us,  seeing  that  you  have  committed 
more  outrages  and  mischiefs  against  them,  since  you 
received  our  said  letter,  and  were  aware  of  the  good- 
will that  we  entertained  toward  them,  than  you  had 
done  before,  to  the  very  great  injury  of  the  said 
friars,  and  against  the  peace  of  our  lord  the  king. 
Wherefore,  it  would  be  well  that  such  insult  and  such 
injuries  were  so  speedily,  so  duly,  and  so  peremptorily 
redressed,  that  no  further  evil  could  arise  therefrom, 
and  that  you  send  us  word  forthwith  how  you  were 
prepared  to  make  amends  for  the  same.  For  we  shall 
take  counsel  how  to  cause  the  same  to  be  redressed 
in  such  manner  that  others  may  be  the  better  warned 
henceforth,  by  your  example,    to  refrain   from  the 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  79 

commission  of  such  insults.     Given  under  our  privy 
seal  at  Langele,  the  5th  day  of  June." 

The  subjoined  letter  was  written  in  behalf  of  a  lady 
of  foreign  birth,  in  whom  the  Prince  of  Wales  evi- 
dently took  considerable  interest.  She  was  probably 
a  pretty  young  widow  at  this  time.  There  are  several 
letters  on  the  roll,  having  reference  to  her  case,  but 
the  details  throw  no  additional  light  on  the  case  itself, 
except  that  we  may  gather  therefrom  that  a  portion 
of  her  troubles  was  caused  by  disputes  about  property. 
The  barony  of  "Mortimer  of  Richard's  Castle"  is 
mentioned  in  Nicolas.  It  is  uncertain  whether  the 
"  Sanderdene  "  from  which  this  letter  is  dated  is  in 
Sussex  or  Kent,  or  if  it  be  Sandown  in  the  Isle 
of  Wight. 

To  the  Mayor  and  Sheriffs  of  London, 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved,  the 
Mayor  and  the  Sheriffs  of  London,  health  and  good 
love.  Whereas  we  are  bound  to  aid  and  advantage 
our  dear  and  well-beloved  the  Lady  Mortimer,  of 
Richard's  Castle,  by  reason  that  our  most  dear  lady 
and  mother  had  her  given  in  marriage  in  this  country  ; 
and  we  have  heard  that  she  is  imprisoned  in  the  city 
of  London  upon  the  indictment  of  her  persecutors, 
and  that  they  are  inflicting  upon  her  more  duress  than 
they  ought,  seeing  that  she  is  not  convicted  of  the 
things  of  which  she  is  accused,  as  it  is  said :  we  do 
pray  you  affectionately  that  for  the  love  you  bear  unto 
us  you  will  cause  command  to  be  given  that  she  shall 
be  relieved  from  the  duress  that  is  so  unreasonably 


8o         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

inflicted  upon  her,  and  shall  be  treated  in  the  most 
courteous  manner  that  right  will  allow  of ;  that  so  we 
may  perceive  that  [redress]  has  been  done  unto  her 
by  your  order,  and  may  feel  ourselves  bound  to 
acknowledge  ourselves  indebted  therefore.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Sanderdene,  the  29th  day  of  June." 

And  again,  touching  this  lady. 

To  Adam  de  Kyngesheinde. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  well-beloved  Adam  de  Kynge- 
sheinde, greeting.  Whereas  we  are  bound  to  aid  and 
assist  our  dear  and  well-beloved  lady  Dame  Maut 
[Maud  or  Matilda]  de  Mortimer,  of  Richard's  Castle ; 
and  we  have  heard  that  she  has  been  too  hardly 
treated  at  your  suit,  and  without  any  fault  of  hers, 
as  we  have  been  given  to  understand :  we  do  pray 
you  that  you  will  abstain  from  inflicting  duress  or 
aggrievance  upon  her,  against  reason,  and  we  will 
hold  ourselves  indebted  to  you  therefore.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Chartham,  this  8th  day  of  July." 

To  the  Bailiffs  of  Bruges. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved,  the 
Bailiffs  and  Echevins  of  Bruges,  health  and  good 
love.  We  do  pray  you  affectionately  that  for  the 
love  of  us  you  will  give  all  the  good  counsel  and  aid 
that  you  may,  for  the  deliverance  of  Boydyn  Vayn 
Lapscure,  servant  of  Reginald  de  Thunderlee,  our 
well-beloved  merchant,  who  is  in  prison  at  L'Escluse 
[Sluys]  in  Flanders,  without  any  fault  of  his ;  that  so 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  8i 

our  said  merchant  may  have  to  congratulate  himself 
upon  what  you  shall  have  done  for  his  servant  at  our 
request,  and  we  may  hold  ourselves  indebted  to  you 
therein.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Chartham,  this  8th 
day  of  July." 

To  Her  Ladyship  the  Queen. 

"  To  the  queen,  greeting.  Most  dear  lady,  foras- 
much as  we  greatly  desire  the  advancement  of  our 
dear  clerk,  Sir  Walter  Reginald,'  keeper  of  our  ward- 
robe, as  we  are  bound  to  do  for  the  long  services 
which  he  has  done  us ;  and  we  have  heard  that  our 
late  clerk.  Sir  Giles  Daudenarde,  who  held  a  prebend 
in  Rypon,  another  in  the  church  of  Chichester,  and  a 
third  in  Hasty ngges,  has  been  called  unto  God, 
whereby  the  donation  of  these  three  prebends  be- 
longs to  our  lord  the  king,  our  father ;  to  whom  we 
cannot,  and  dare  not,  make  any  request,  of  ourselves, 
hereupon  or  upon  other  matters,  as  you  are  aware : 
Madam,  we  do  pray  your  Highness  that  you  will  be 
pleased  to  be  aiding  us  as  toward  our  lord  and  father, 
as  though,  madam,  it  had  been  on  your  own  behalf ; 
and  that,  for  you,  he  will  consent  to  advance  the  said 
clerk  to  the  prebend  of  Rypon,  the  more  especially 
as  he  has  often  made  promise  of  his  advancement. 

*  Walter  Reginald  (or  Reynaud)  was  also  the  prince's  treasurer, 
and  seems  to  have  been  in  high  favour  with  Edward,  who  was  at 
this  period  eternally  worrying  prelates,  abbots,  and  holders  of  ad- 
vowsons  with  entreaties  for  his  advancement.  Of  letters  of  this 
description  there  are  probably  about  twenty  in  the  roll.  Immedi- 
ately following  the  above,  there  is  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  asking  him,  in  behalf  of  Reginald,  for  the  Church  of 
Croyndone  (Croydon,  no  doubt),  now  vacant  through  the  death 
of  Giles  Daudenarde. 


82  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Most  dear  lady,  may  our  Lord  save  and  keep  you  by 
his  power  always.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Wy,  this  2d 
day  of  July." 

To  Sir  Lambert  de  Trikynham. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  well-beloved  Sir  Lambert  de 
Trikynham,  Warden  of  the  Archbishopric  of  York, 
upon  the  vacancy  of  the  see,  greeting.  Whereas 
we  have  heard  that  by  the  sufferance  and  mainte- 
nance of  John,  your  under-bailiff  at  Southwell,  a 
blacksmith  has  begun  to  raise  a  forge,  and  other 
persons  are  about  to  raise  other  edifices,  abutting 
upon  the  walls  and  enclosures  of  the  burying-ground 
of  the  church  of  Southwell,  in  places  where  there 
were  no  such  edifices  before,  to  the  great  prejudice 
of  the  said  church,  and  to  the  aggrievance  of  the 
canons  who  dwell  there ;  and  we  well  know  that  our 
lord  the  king,  our  father,  does  not  wish  that  any 
innovation  should  be  begun  by  his  officers  in  this 
time  of  vacation,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  said  church, 
or  to  the  injury  or  aggrievance  of  the  said  canons ; 
we  do  pray  you  that  you  will  not  suffer  any  forge  or 
other  new  edifice  to  be  raised  where  no  such  used  to 
be  before,  or  any  other  innovation  to  be  begun,  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  said  church  or  aggrievance  of  the 
said  canons,  so  far  as  you  can  in  due  manner  prevent 
the  same.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Wy,  this  6th  day 
of  July." 

The  consequences  of  the  reduction  of  the  prince's 
household,  by  order  of  the  king,  and  his  own  tem- 
porary want  of  money,  are  especially  indicated  in  the 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  S^ 

two  following  letters,  the  first  of  which  is  a  good 
specimen  of  the  earnestness  with  which  the  Prince 
of  Wales  sought  to  provide  for  the  lowest  as  well  as 
the  most  dignified  of  his  dependents.  The  allusion 
to  "  Little  London "  I  cannot  explain.  Mr.  Riley 
suggests  that  such  may  have  been  the  name  of  a  spot 
at  Langley,  where  the  prince  kept  his  stud,  and  per- 
haps something  else  —  an  establishment,  it  may  be, 
like  that  of  the  "Jericho"  of  Henry  VIIL,  in  Essex. 

To  William  de  Doncastre. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  William  de  Doncastre,  burgess 
of  Chestre,  greeting.  Whereas  Thomas  de  la 
Chaumbre,  who  has  been  in  our  service,  has  a  great 
wish  to  work  and  to  be  apprenticed  in  your  company, 
as  he  says  ;  we  send  him  unto  you,  and  we  pray  you 
that  you  will  receive  him  among  your  people,  and 
will  put  him  into  some  office  where  he  may  be  ser- 
viceable unto  you,  and  learn,  to  his  own  profit  and 
yours.  And  we  shall  acknowledge  ourselves  indebted 
to  you  therefore.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Ospringe, 
this  14th  day  of  July." 

To  the  Bailiff  of  Langele  {Langley), 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  Robert  le  Parker,  his  bailiff  at 
Langele,  greeting.  Whereas  our  lord  the  king  has 
charged  us  that  we  should  cause  to  be  removed  all 
those  who  have  their  abode  at  *  Petite  Lundres ; ' 
that  so  no  one  may  dwell  there,  but  the  place  be 
kept  in  such  manner  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  our 
dearest  lady  and  mother,  whom    may   God    assoil ; 


84         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

we  do  command  that  you  remove  all  those  who 
have  their  abode  there  as  regards  us,  if  any  such 
there  be ;  and  in  particular  Sir  Thomas,  the  chaplain, 
for  this  he  has  commanded  us.  And  cause  the  place 
to  be  kept  in  the  manner  aforesaid ;  and  see  yourself 
that  the  parker  performs  his  duties.  Given  under, 
etc.,  at  Chartham,  this  I2th  day  of  July." 

To  Her  Ladyship  the  Countess  of  Gloucester. 

"The  prince  announces  his  thankfulness  to  the 
Countess  of  Gloucester  for  her  gift  of  things,  and 
the  use  of  her  seal ;  and  that,  contrary  to  what 
she  had  been  told,  the  king  had  not  continued  to 
act  so  harshly  with  him ;  for  he  had  wished  and 
ordered  that  his  son  should  be  sufficiently  supplied 
with  what  was  necessary  for  him."  This  abstract 
of  the  original  letter,  which  is  in  Latin,  concludes 
by  announcing  that  "The  king  hath  sent  back  the 
prince's  seal  by  Ingelard  de  Warle,  cleric,  to  whom 
the  same  seal  was  delivered  under  the  king's  signet, 
on  the  2 1st  of  July,  in  the  chamber  of  the  archbishop, 
at  Lambeth,  in  presence  of  Sir  William  de  Ley- 
beirne,  Roderick  of  Spain,  William  de  Melton,  and 
many  others.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  seal 
was  delivered  there  on  that  same  day,  not  under  sig- 
net ;  the  lord  chancellor  doing  that  with  the  seal  of 
the  king." 

To  His  Lordship  the  Bishop  of  Durham, 

"To  the  honourable  father  in  God,  his  very  dear 
friend.  Sir  Anthony,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Bishop  of 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  85 

Durham,  Edward,  etc.,  greeting  and  affectionate  love. 
We  do  thank  you  very  affectionately  for  that  you 
have  so  well  managed  our  business  with  our  lord 
the  king,  our  father;  and  we  do  pray  you,  and  do 
well  know,  that  you  will  at  all  times  bestow  upon 
our  affairs  all  the  aid  and  good-will  that  you  can, 
as  being  one  who  is  entirely  and  for  certain  our 
friend.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wynde- 
sore,  this  23d  day  of  July." 

To  the  Lord  John  of  Britanny. 

"  To  M.  John  of  Britanny,  greeting  and  affection- 
ate love.  We  have  carefully  listened  to  the  mes- 
sage which  you  have  sent  us,  and  we  admit  ourselves 
to  be  culpable  as  to  what  was  contained  in  the  same 
message,  and  do  pray  your  pardon  thereon.  Still  for 
all  that,  at  our  next  interview  we  will  tell  you  such 
things  that  you  will  hold  us  as  excused  thereon,  and 
will  be  fully  satisfied  as  to  the  same.  Our  Lord  have 
you  in  his  keeping.  Written  at  the  Park  of  Wynde- 
sore,  this  3d  day  of  August." 

To  Sir  John  de  Berewyk, 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  clerk.  Sir  John  de  Bere- 
wyk, health  and  good  love.  Whereas  we  have  heard 
that  of  the  devise  which  our  dearest  lady  and  mother 
(whom  may  God  assoil),  whose  executor  you  are, 
made  to  our  dearly  beloved  in  God  the  prioress  and 
the  convent  of  Bromhale,  a  part  is  paid,  and  that  a 
great  part  thereof  is  still  in  arrear,  and  we  do  greatly 
wish  that  her  last  will  was  fulfilled,  for  the  rest  and 


86         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

welfare  of  her  soul :  we  do  pray  you  in  especial,  that 
so  much  as  is  in  arrear  of  the  devise  made  unto  the 
said  ladies,  you  will  cause  to  be  paid  in  due  manner 
as  speedily  as  you  can,  for  the  love  which  you  bear 
to  us ;  and  we  shall  acknowledge  ourselves  greatly 
indebted  therefore.  Our  Lord  have  you  in  his  keep- 
ing. Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore, 
this  3d  day  of  August." 

Rothery  or  Rotherik  (Roderic)  d'Espagne  was  his 
chamberlain  in  August,  as  mentioned  in  a  letter  to 
the  sheriff  of  Bedford  of  the  5  th  of  that  month. 

To  the  Mayor  of  London, 

"  To  his  well-beloved  Sir  John  le  Blund,  Mayor  of 
London,  health  and  good  love.  Whereas  we  have 
heard  that  certain  persons  of  the  city  of  London  are 
bound  unto  our  well-beloved  servant  Michael  Le 
Tailleur,  in  a  certain  sum  of  money  for  the  assault 
which  in  the  said  city  they  committed  upon  him,  we 
do  pray  you  that  you  will  be  assisting  unto  our  said 
servant,  that  he  may  recover  the  debt  which  is  so 
due  to  him,  as  speedily  as  in  due  manner,  for  love  of 
us,  you  may  be  enabled  to  effect  the  same.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Yatele  [Yately],  this  12th  day  of 
August." 

To  Almaricus  (Emery)  de  Friscobald, 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  Emery  de  Friscobald,  greeting. 
Whereas  we  are  bound  unto  our  well-beloved  Emeric 
Martyn,  a  merchant  of  Gascony,  in  the  sum  of  ^^70 
sterling,  for  wines  which  were  bought  of  him  for  our 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  87 

use,  and  consumed  in  our  house ;  for  which  he  has 
letters  obligatory  of  our  dear  clerk,  Sir  Walter  Regi- 
nald, keeper  of  our  wardrobe  :  we  do  command  you, 
that  you  will  cause  to  be  paid  unto  the  said  Emeric 
the  said  £^^0  as  speedily  as  you  may,  receiving  from 
him  the  said  letters  obligatory.  And  we  send  you 
our  letters  written  unto  our  chamberlain  at  Chester, 
by  which  we  command  that,  upon  receiving  from  you 
these  letters  together  with  the  said  letters  obligatory, 
he  shall  cause  to  be  paid  unto  you  the  said  fyo  with- 
out any  delay.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Sunnynge,  the 
13th  day  of  August." 

To  Sir  Walter  Reginald, 

"To  Sir  Walter  Reginald,  etc.,  greeting.  We 
send  you  our  letters  of  credit,  written  to  Barouncyn, 
a  merchant  of  Luke  [Lucca] ;  by  which  we  pray  him 
that  he  will  give  you  credit  for  that  which  you  shall 
mention  to  him,  and  do  that  which  you  shall  request 
him  to  do  on  our  behalf,  in  the  matter  of  making  us 
a  loan  of  money  until  some  convenient  term.  And 
we  do  require  of  you,  that  you  will  make  it  your  care 
to  say  such  words  unto  him,  and  make  of  him  such 
request  in  our  behalf  as  concerning  the  said  loan,  as 
you  know  that  the  state  of  our  affairs  demands ;  and 
until  such  term  as  you  shall  be  sensible  that  we  shall 
be  enabled  well  and  easily  to  repay  the  same.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Sunnynge,  this  15th  day  of  August." 

To  Baroncifiy  the  merchant. 

"  To  Baroncin,  the  merchant  of  Lucca.  Whereas 
we  have  charged  our  dearly  beloved  clerk,  Sir  Walter 


SS         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Reginald,  etc.,  to  tell  you  certain  things  by  word  of 
mouth  in  our  behalf,  and  to  request  that  you  will 
make  us  a  loan  of  money  until  some  convenient  term, 
for  weighty  matters  that  concern  us :  we  do  pray  that 
you  will  confidently  believe  our  said  clerk  as  to  that 
which  he  shall  tell  you,  and  do  that  which  he  shall 
request  you  in  our  behalf,  as  concerning  the  loan 
above  mentioned.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Sunnynge, 
this  15th  day  of  August." 

To  Sir  Hugh  le  Despenser. 

**  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved  M. 
Hugh  le  Despenser,  health  and  good  love.  Whereas 
we  have  heard  that  our  well-beloved  John  de  Bonynge 
is  indicted  for  a  trespass  that  has  been  committed  in 
your  Park  of  Wokkynge  [Woking .?] ;  for  which  tres- 
pass he  has  come  unto  you  to  ask  your  pardon :  we 
do  pray  you  affectionately  that  herein  you  will  be 
unto  him  so  gracious  and  so  merciful  that  he  may 
be  sensible  that  this  our  prayer  has  availed  him,  and 
that  we  may  feel  ourselves  bound  to  thank  you  and 
to  acknowledge  ourselves  indebted  therein.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Sunnynge,  this  i6th  day  of  August." 

To  John  de  Foxle. 

"To  John  de  Foxle,  greeting.  We  do  command 
that  you  send  unto  us  a  sparrow-hawk,  in  full  wing, 
for  partridges,  and  that  you  lend  unto  us  a  spaniel ; 
and  that  you  send  the  same  to-morrow  by  a  man  who 
well  knows  how  to  carry  the  said  hawk.  And  also, 
send  unto  us  to-morrow  one  of  the  foresters,  from 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  89 

whom  we  may  have  advice  as  to  our  sport  in  the 
forest.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Sunnynge,  this  i6th 
day  of  August." 

To  Sir   Walter  Reginald. 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  clerk.  Sir  Walter  Regi- 
nald, etc.,  greeting.  We  do  command  that  you  cause 
to  be  paid  unto  Adam  le  Poleter,  of  Redinges  [Read- 
ing], bearer  of  these  letters,  the  money  which  we  owe 
unto  him,  of  which  you  well  know,  and  as  to  which 
we  have  already  commanded  you  to  pay  the  same ; 
that  so  he  may  not  have  hereafter  to  return  to  us  for 
the  said  payment.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Sunninge, 
this  1 6th  day  of  August." 

To  Sir  Robert  de  Touny. 

"Edward  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  faithful  friend  M. 
Robert  de  Touny,  health  and  affectionate  love.  For 
that  you  did  not  speak  to  us  lately,  when  you  were 
at  our  house  (hostel),  we  hold  you  excused ;  and  we 
do  pray  you  that  you  will  come  to  speak  to  us  as 
soon  as,  in  due  manner,  you  may ;  and  that,  for  so 
long  as  we  remain  in  the  forest,  you  will  lend  us  a 
horn  that  you  have,  and  will  send  it  by  some  one  of 
your  people,  if  you  yourself  cannot  bring  it  us  at  an 
early  moment.  Our  Lord  have  you  in  his  keeping. 
Given  under,  etc.,  at  Baggeshete,  the  21st  day  of 
August." 

To  Sir  Roger  le  Brabanzon  [and  others\. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  well-beloved  M. 
Roger  Brabanzon,  M.  Peter  Malorre,  and  Sir  Gilbert 


9©         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

de  Roubire,  justices,  etc.,  health  and  good  love. 
Whereas  we  have  heard  that  Simon  de  Pinkenye 
and  Christina,  his  partner  (who  is  sister  to  our  dear 
and  well-beloved  in  God,  brother  John  de  Lenham, 
our  confessor),  have  been  indicted  by  the  procure- 
ment of  one  Edmund  Cok,  their  persecutor;  we  do 
pray  you  as  especially  as  we  can,  that  if  so  be  that 
they  shall  have  to  come  for  judgment  before  you, 
you  will  show  unto  them  all  graciousness  and  friend- 
ship, favour  and  kindness,  that  law  and  reason  will 
admit  of,  for  the  love  that  you  bear  unto  us ;  and 
that  the  inquest  that  shall  be  taken  as  concerning 
them  shall  be  of  other  persons  than  of  those  who 
indicted  them,  or  of  the  kindred  of  those  who  caused 
them  to  be  indicted.  For  we  desire  greatly  that  their 
deliverance  were  made  to  their  honour,  by  reason  of 
our  said  confessor.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Sunnynge, 
the  30th  day  of  August." 

To   Sir  Hugh  le  Despenser. 

**  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  and  faithful  friend,  M. 
Hughe  le  Despenser,  health  and  affectionate  love. 
Whereas  we  have  made  request  of  you  heretofore 
as  to  the  matters  that  concern  our  dear  servant. 
Master  Richard  de  Clebury,  our  cook,  in  reference 
to  the  bailiwick  of  Kynefare ;  and,  for  the  love  that 
you  bear  to  us,  you  have  been  a  good  friend  to  him, 
so  that  his  business  has  been  wholly  completed  by 
your  aid :  we  do  further  pray  you,  in  especial,  that 
you  will  be  assisting  him,  and  that  you  will  speak  to 
M.  John  Fitz-Philip  (who  is  an  old  man,  as  we  have 
heard,  and  has  no  power  to  help  himself  in  keeping 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  91 

his  bailiwick),  that  he  give  up  his  office  to  our  said 
servant  for  a  certain  sum,  which  you  shall  think 
proper  to  name,  and  which  shall  be  suitable  for  the 
one  and  the  other.  For  well  know  that  the  said  M. 
John  will  do  at  your  request  all  things  that  are  rea- 
sonable. And  we  do  pray  you  that  you  have  this 
matter  so  much  at  heart  that  our  said  servant  obtain 
a  certain  income ;  for  we  ourselves  have  his  interests 
and  his  advancement  much  at  heart.  Our  Lord  have 
you  in  his  keeping.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park 
of  Wyndesore,  this  3d  day  of  September." 

To  Sir  John  Fitz-Philip, 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  M.  John  Fitz-Philip,  health  and 
good  love.  Whereas  our  lord  the  king,  our  father, 
at  our  request  has  given  the  bailiwick  of  Kynefare, 
after  your  decease,  unto  our  dear  servant.  Master 
Richard  de  Clebury,  our  cook;  and  we  have  heard 
that  you  are  in  so  feeble  a  state  of  body  that  you 
cannot  help  yourself  in  safely  keeping  the  bailiwick ; 
we  do  pray  you  in  especial  that  you  will  make 
him  certain  of  the  bailiwick  in  such  manner  as  your 
friends  and  his  shall  look  upon  as  reasonable  for 
yourself  and  for  him.  And  whatever  you  shall  do 
for  him  at  our  request,  we  shall  be  much  bound  to 
thank  you  for  the  same,  and  to  acknowledge  ourselves 
indebted  therein.  For  know  that  we  have  his  inter- 
ests and  his  advancement  much  at  heart,  for  the  good 
and  praiseworthy  services  that  he  has  done  us  here- 
tofore, and  still  does  from  one  day  to  another.  And 
as  to  what  you  shall  be  pleased  to  do  at  this  our 
request,  you  will  send  us  word  by  your  letters,  by 


92  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  bearer  hereof.     Given  under,  etc.   at  the  Park  of 
Wyndesore,  this  3d  day  of  September.'* 

To  Sir  Walter  Reginald, 

"We  command  that  the  moneys  which  you  have 
received  on  loan,  to  our  use,  of  Baroncyn,  merchant 
of  Lucca,  you  cause  to  be  paid  unto  our  creditors,  in 
the  district  of  Langele,  to  the  amount  of  two  hundred 
marks ;  to  those,  namely,  who  shall  have  the  greatest 
need  thereof.  And  we  send  you  our  letters,  written 
unto  the  said  Baroncyn,  whereby  we  thank  him  for 
the  loan  which  he  has  made  unto  us,  and  the  which 
we  desire  you  should  make  of  avail  unto  him.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  4th 
day  of  September." 

To  the  Bailiffs  and  Commonalty  of  Bruscels 
[Brussels], 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  the  bailiffs  and  commonalty  of 
Brussels,  health  and  good  love.  Whereas  we  have 
heard  that  the  Pope  has  given  a  place  unto  our 
dearly  beloved  in  God,  the  brethren  of  the  Order  of 
Friars  Preachers,  which  belonged  to  the  Friars  of  the 
Sack,  in  the  same  town  of  Brussels ;  we  do  pray  that, 
as  to  such  place,  you  will  for  love  of  us  allow  them 
to  enjoy  the  same  to  their  profit  in  all  due  and  proper 
manner  that  they  may ;  and  we  shall  in  especial  hold 
ourselves  indebted  to  you  therefore.  Given  under, 
etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  4th  day  of 
September." 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  93 


To  His  Lordship y  the  Abbot  of  Abyndone. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dearly  beloved  in  God,  the 
Abbot  of  Abyndone,  and  the  convent  of  the  same 
place,  health  and  affectionate  love.  Whereas,  at 
the  request  of  our  lord  the  king,  our  father,  you 
have  granted  unto  our  dear  servant.  Master  Simon, 
our  cook,  ten  marks  per  annum,  to  be  received  of 
your  house,  as  we  have  heard ;  we  do  pray  you  in 
especial,  that,  in  addition  thereto,  you  will  give  him 
your  robes.  For  we  are  sensible,  and  do  well  know, 
that  he  will  both  wish  and  know  how  to  show  him- 
self well  deserving  of  the  same.  Given  under, 
etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  the  5th  day  of 
September." 

To  His  Lordship  the  Abbot  of  Redynge. 

"To  his  dearly  beloved  in  God,  the  Abbot  of 
Redynge,  and  the  convent,  etc.,  health  and  all  due 
honour.  Whereas  our  well-beloved  John  Lalemand, 
keeper  of  one  of  our  chargers,  has  had  one  of  his 
hands  badly  wounded,  and  we  have  heard  that  there 
is  a  good  surgeon  with  you ;  we  do  pray  that  you 
will  receive  him  to  remain  in  your  house  until  such 
time  as  his  hand  is  cured,  and  that  in  the  meantime 
you  will  find  him  his  sustenance,  and  see  that  the 
said  surgeon  takes  good  care  of  him,  for  the  honour 
of  ourselves.  And  we  do  desire  in  especial  to  be 
bound  to  thank  you  for  the  same.  Given  under, 
etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  5th  day  of 
September." 


94         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 
To  Henry  de  Say, 

"To  his  dear  servant,  Henry  de  Say,  his  brother, 
etc.,  greeting.  Whereas,  we  have  heard  that  our 
dear  servant,  Laurence  de  Baggeshete,  our  palfrey- 
man,  is  about  shortly  to  have  his  daughter  married ; 
we  do  command  that  you  will  cause  to  be  delivered 
unto  him  one  tun  of  wine  as  our  gift  for  the  nuptials 
of  his  said  daughter.  And  we  will  cause  that  due 
allowance  shall  be  made  you,  therefore,  in  your 
account.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wynde- 
sore,  this  5th  day  of  September." 

To  Sir  Walter  Reginald, 

"To  Sir  Walter  Reginald,  keeper,  etc.,  greeting. 
Whereas  we  have  heard  that  you  have  not  yet  deliv- 
ered unto  Gunnore,  our  laundress,  her  gown  which 
she  ought  to  have  had  of  us  for  the  feast  of  Christ- 
mas last  past ;  we  do  command  that  if  the  same  is  still 
due  to  her,  you  will  cause  her  to  have  the  same  in 
due  manner  as  speedily  as  you  may.  For  we  have 
heard  that  she  will  shortly  have  her  daughter  mar- 
ried ;  wherefore  it  is  our  wish  that  this  matter  should 
be  the  more  expedited.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the 
Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  5th  day  of  September." 

To  Sir  Roger  Sauvage, 

"To  M.  Roger  le  Sauvage,  constable  of  Wynde- 
sore, etc.  We  do  pray  you  that  you  will  let  John 
Gounage,  servant  in  our  butlery,  who  is  dwelling 
at   Wyndesore,  have   two   fitting   oaks   for   timber, 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  95 

from  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  on  our  behalf.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  5th  day 
of  September." 

To  Sir  Hughe  le  Despenser. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  M.  Hughe  le  Despenser,  health 
and  affectionate  love.  We  do  pray  you  in  especial, 
that  you  will  hasten  unto  us  as  soon  as,  in  due 
manner,  you  can,  and  that  you  will  send  us  word 
by  your  letters  where  you  will  be  the  Sunday 
next  to  come.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of 
Wyndesore,  this  7th  day  of  September." 

To  His  Lordship  the  Earl  of  Lincoln, 

"To  the  noble  man,  his  dear  cousin,  M.  Henry 
de  Lacy,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  health  and  affection- 
ate love.  We  do  pray  you  in  especial  that  you 
will  be  tender  of  our  business  touching  us  at  this 
next  Parliament ;  and  more  particularly  as  to  Gower, 
that  our  jurisdiction  and  our  rights  there  may  be 
saved.  And  be  pleased  to  be  aiding  and  counselling 
unto  our  well-beloved  M.  William  de  Langetone, 
who  will  maintain  our  suit  before  you  in  the  said 
Parliament  for  the  saving  and  maintaining  of  our 
rights.  Our  lord  have  you  in  his  keeping.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  lOth 
day  of  September." 

To  Master  Robert  de  Cisterne. 

"To  Master  Robert  de  Cisterne,  our  physician, 
greeting.     We  do  command  you  that,  upon  seeing 


96  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

these  letters,  you  forthwith  come  unto  us,  wherever 
we  may  be,  in  the  vicinity  of  Wyndesore.  And  this 
omit  not,  in  any  manner.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Bray, 
this  15th  day  of  September." 


To  Her  Ladyship  the  Countess  of  Hereford. 

"To  the  noble  lady,  his  most  dear  sister.  Madam 
Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Holland,  Hereford,  and  Essex, 
on  part  of  Edward,  her  brother,  health  and  affection- 
ate love.  Dearest  sister,  whereas  we  have  a  beauti- 
ful white'  harrier  dog,  we  pray  that  you  will  send 
us  the  white  harrier  bitch  that  you  have ;  for  we  have 
a  great  desire  to  possess  some  of  these  dogs.  Dear- 
est sister,  our  Lord  have  you  in  his  keeping.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  Bray,  this  15th  day  of  September." 

To  His  Lordship  the  Earl  of  Lancaster. 

"To  the  Earl  of  Lancaster,  health  and  affection- 
ate love.  Most  dear  cousin,  we  hold  you  well 
excused  in  that  you  have  not  come  to  see  us ;  and 
we  are  greatly  grieved  at  your  illness,  and  if  we 
could  have  come  to  where  you  are,  we  would  have 
done  so  willingly,  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  and  com- 
forting you.  Most  dear  cousin,  our  Lord  have  you 
in  his  keeping.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of 
Windsor,  this  2 2d  day  of  September." 


'The  word  is  "liverer."  It  is  doubtful  whether  it  means 
"harrier,"  "retriever,"  or  the  one  known  as  the  "levinner,"  or 
"  lyemmer,"  by  the  old  naturalists,  also  called  the  "  lyme-hound," 
probably  a  sort  of  bloodhound. 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  97 

To  Sir  John  de  Drokenesford. 

"To  Sir  John  de  Drokenesford,  health  and  affec- 
tionate love.  Whereas  you  have  promised  us  a  cart- 
load of  walnuts,  we  pray  you  that  you  will  send  your 
letter  written  to  the  keeper  of  the  place  where  the 
nuts  are,  and  we  will  send  thither  a  cart  to  fetch 
them.  Our  Lord  have  you  in  his  keeping.  Given 
under,  etc.,  at  the  Park  of  Windsor,  this  25th  day 
of  September." 

To  Reginald  de   Thunderlee  \and  another]. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  Reginald  de  Thunderle  and  to 
William  Cosin,  sheriffs  of  London,  health  and  good 
love.  As  by  our  letters  we  made  entreaty  of  late 
for  our  well-beloved  Robert  Poun,  that  you  would 
make  him  sergeant  to  carry  the  mace  before  you, 
we  do  pray  you  again  that  you  will  receive  the  said 
Robert,  and  make  him  your  said  sergeant,  for  the 
love  you  bear  us.  And  we  will  in  especial  be  bound 
to  thank  you  and  to  acknowledge  ourselves  indebted 
for  the  same.  Given  at  Kenytone  [Kennington], 
this  3d  day  of  October." 

To  the  Abbot  of  St.  Edmund's, 

"  Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dearly  beloved  in  God,  the 
Abbot  of  St.  Edmund's,  health  and  good  love. 
Whereas  we  have  heard  that  some  outrage  has  been 
committed  by  the  people  of  your  abbey  upon  the 
people  of  the  town  of  St.  Edmund's ;  which  offence 
your  said  people  are  putting  upon  our  servant,  Robert 


98  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Sauvage ;  we  do  pray  you,  that  you  will  by  no  means 
allow  that  anything  should  be  put  upon  our  said  ser- 
vant, other  than  is  consistent  with  reason  and  truth, 
and  that  you  will  cause  an  inquisition  to  be  held 
thereon,  of  good  and  lawful  persons  of  the  said  city ; 
and  that  when  the  same  shall  have  been  so  taken,  you 
will  send  us  a  copy  thereof  under  your  seal,  that  so 
we  may  know  the  true  state  of  the  matter.  Given 
at  Kenytone,  this  4th  day  of  October." 

The  following  are  cited  on  account  of  the  singular 
surnames  contained  in  them  : 

"To  Richard  Oysel,  warden  of  Kingestone-upon- 
Hulle,  health  and  good  love.  We  do  pray  you  in 
especial  in  behalf  of  our  well-beloved  John  Roten- 
herynge,  of  Kyngestone,  that  in  the  matters  which 
concern  him  before  you,  you  will,  for  the  love  which 
you  bear  to  us,  show  him  the  favour  and  friendship 
that  rightfully  you  may.  And  we  will  be  especially 
indebted  to  you  therefore.  Given,  etc.,  at  Quene- 
tone,'  this  25th  day  of  October." 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  all  bailiffs  and  officers  of  our 
lord  the  king,  and  to  our  own,  greeting.  As  our 
beloved  Hamond  Dandy,  bearer  of  these  letters, 
who  is  with  us  of  our  household,  is  on  his  way 
toward   his   country   of   Cestreshrie   (Cheshire),  we 

*  I  have  little  doubt  but  that  this  is  merely  an  affected  way  of 
writing,  "  Kenytone "  meaning  "  Kennington."  In  several  cases 
I  have  met  with  it,  the  letters  of  the  day  before  and  the  day  after 
being  dated  from  "  Kenytone."  It  is  just  possible,  however,  that 
"  Quenetone  "  (Queen's  Town)  may  have  been  some  now  forgotten 
adjunct  of  "  Kenytone"  (King's  Town). 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  99 

do  pray  that  when  he  shall  come  your  way,  you  will 
hold  him  as  recommended  unto  you,  for  the  love 
of  God,  both  in  going,  sojourning,  and  returning ; 
and  that  you  will  not  do  unto  him,  or  suffer  to  be 
done  unto  him,  so  long  as  he  is  among  you,  any  evil, 
mischief,  or  molestation,  without  reasonable  cause 
therefore.  These  letters  to  continue  in  force  until 
the  Feast  of  the  Nativity  of  St.  John  the  Baptist 
next  ensuing.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Langele,  this 
nth  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of,  etc.,  33." 

To  Sir   Walter  Reginald. 

"To  his  dear  clerk,  Walter  Reginald,  keeper,  etc. 
Whereas  we  have  heard  that  you  have  bought  of 
John  Launcegruel,  of  London,  a  horse  at  the  price 
of  ;£3o;  of  which  £,\^  are  paid  him,  and  the 
other  ;£i5  are  still  to  pay;  we  do  command  that, 
if  so  it  is,  you  will  cause  to  be  paid  unto  him  the 
other  ;£i5  which  are  so  in  arrear,  in  due  manner, 
as  speedily  as  you  may.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  the 
Park  of  Wyndesore,  this  4th  day  of  September." 

The  following  two  notes  show  his  regard  for  one 
of  his  old  nurses  : 

To  Henry  de  Bray, 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  well-beloved  Master  Henry 
de  Bray,  greeting  and  good  love.  Whereas  we  have 
heard  that  some  persons,  by  your  abetting,  are  about 
to  molest  our  dear  and  well-beloved  Dame  Alice  de 
Leygrave,  our  nurse,  in  reference  to  a  wardship  which 


lOo       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

our  lord  the  king,  our  father,  had  given  to  her,  lately 
belonging  to  Fraunke  Scolaunde,  to  whom  the  daugh- 
ter of  our  said  nurse  is  manied ;  we  do  affectionately 
pray  you,  and  do  command  that  you  will  wholly 
abstain  from  doing,  or  causing  to  be  done,  by  your- 
self or  by  others,  anything  that  may  turn  to  the  hurt 
or  damage  of  the  said  daughter  of  our  nurse,  or  to 
the  hindrance  of  the  gift  aforesaid,  contrary  to  what 
is  right  —  for  we  are  greatly  troubled  that  she,  or 
hers,  should  incur  evil  or  damage  unreasonably  — 
so  far  as  it  is  in  our  power  duly  to  give  our  counsel 
thereon  ;  for  the  saving  of  the  right  of  our  lord  the 
king,  and  the  good  services  which  our  said  nurse  has 
borne  us.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Wye,  the  5th  day 
of  July." 

To  the  Bishop  of  Bath  [  Walter  Haselshaw\ 

"  To  the  honourable  Father  in  God,  his  dear  friend, 
Sir  Walter,  by  the  grace  of  God  Bishop  of  Bath, 
Edward,  etc.  We  do  thank  you  affectionately  for 
the  honours  and  courtesies  which  you  have  oftentimes 
done  unto  our  dear  nurse.  Dame  Alice  de  Leygrave, 
as  to  the  which  she  has  spoken  unto  us  in  terms  of 
high  commendation  ;  and  we  do  especially  request 
that  the  benefits  which  you  have  so  begun  you  will 
continue,  if  so  it  please  you,  in  such  manner  that  we 
may  be  still  more  beholden  to  you.  Our  lord,  etc. 
[have  you  in  his  keeping].  Given  under,  etc."  (as 
above  as  to  place  and  date). 

The  subjoined  is  one  more  case  of  interference  in 
the  matter  of  his  tailor. 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  loi 


To  Sir  Roger  BrabanzQn.]^and^Qthsr$\^-^i  „>. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  M.  Roger  Brabanzon,  and  his 
companions,  justices  of  our  lord  the  king,  greeting. 
Whereas  certain  persons  of  the  city  of  London  lately 
beat,  wounded,  and  maltreated  Michael,  our  tailor, 
against  the  peace ;  and  we  did  thereupon,  by  our 
letters,  demand  of  the  mayor  and  the  sheriffs  of 
London,  that  all  those  who  were  present  at  this 
assault,  and  who  should  by  inquisition  be  found 
guilty,  should  be  attached  and  imprisoned ;  to  do 
the  which,  the  said  mayor  and  sheriffs  were  bound 
by  virtue  of  their  office.  And  of  late  we  have  heard 
for  certain  that  one  Walter  Balloke,  who  was  in  such 
manner  attached  and  imprisoned  for  the  said  offence, 
has  made  plaint  before  you  of  false  imprisonment, 
and  has  sued  the  sheriffs  who  made  the  attachment 
aforesaid,  as  unto  their  office  pertained :  we  do  pray 
you  in  especial  that  you  will  not  suffer  any  grievance 
or  duress  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  said  mayor  and 
sheriffs  for  the  attachment  which  they  made  upon 
the  misdoers  aforesaid  by  our  command  in  form 
before-mentioned.  And  whereas  we  have  heard 
that  he  is  prosecuting  the  said  sheriffs  by  reason 
of  the  malice  of  certain  persons,  it  would  please  us 
much  that  you  should  take  this  matter  wholly  under 
your  supervision,  until  such  time  as  we  shall  come 
into  the  neighbourhood  of  London,  that  so  you  may 
then  be  fully  informed  by  our  people,  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  truth  of  the  said  matter. 
Given   under,    etc.,   at   Chartham,  this    8th    day  of 

July." 


102       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

^-.     ^  -7"4  J^iehael  the   Tailor. 

'  "'EdwStrd,  etc!,  'to  Michael,  his  tailor,  greeting. 
Whereas  we  have  heard  that  you  have  lately  agreed 
before  our  dear  and  faithful  Monsires  Robert  de 
Hausted,  our  seneschal,  and  Sir  Walter  Reginald, 
keeper  of  our  wardrobe,  to  look  to  our  wardrobe  for 
payment  of  a  debt  which  you  claim  from  Osbern  de 
Gray  and  his  sureties  for  the  assault  which  was  com- 
mitted upon  you  in  the  city  of  London ;  we  do  com- 
mand you  that  if  so  it  is,  you  will  not  molest  or 
cause  to  be  molested  or  grieved,  by  reason  of  the 
said  debt,  the  said  Osbern  or  his  sureties,  against 
the  tenor  of  agreement  aforesaid ;  and  that  you  will 
take  measures  speedily  that  their  houses,  which  for 
this  reason  are  shut  up  at  your  suit,  be  given  up  to 
them,  that  they  may  consult  their  profit  as  to  the 
same.  Given  under,  etc.,  at  Chartham,  this  8th  day 
of  July." 

One  of  the  latest  dated  letters  exhibits  strong  signs 
of  the  country  gentleman,  in  the  concern  of  the  writer 
for  a  suitable  steed. 

To  the  Executors  of  the  Earl  de   Warenne. 

"Edward,  etc.,  to  his  dear  friends  the  executors 
of  our  dear  uncle  the  Earl  de  Warenne,  whom  God 
assoil,  health  and  loving  friendship.  Inasmuch  as 
our  people  have  already  spoken  to  you  in  our  behalf, 
that  we  wished  to  have  the  steed  that  belonged  to 
the  said  earl  for  the  value  as  it  shall  be  appraised  by 
honest  persons,  we  again  entreat  that  the  same  steed 
may  be  kept  for  us  wherever  the  earl  had  it,  and  fix 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  103 

a  time  sure  and  convenient,  when  our  people  and 
your  people  may  examine  the  said  steed,  and  fix  both 
a  certain  price  and  day  to  make  the  payment.  And 
we  pray  you  that  the  said  steed  may  be  nowhere 
removed  from  where  it  is,  until  our  people  and  your 
people  have  examined  it,  as  is  before  said.  Give 
credence  to  our  dear  clerk,  Sir  Robert  de  Chishell,  in 
what  he  shall  say  to  you  in  this  matter.  Given  under 
our  privy  seal  at  Langley,  the  20th  day  of  November 
(1304)." 

Edward  had  a  real  love  for  horses,  and  in  this  he 
imitated  his  friend,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
The  high  position  of  Robert  of  Winchester,  however, 
could  not  protect  him,  in  1306,  when  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  in  greater  disfavour  than  ever  with  the 
king.  That  the  prince  had  a  good  friend  in  so  good 
a  man  as  the  archbishop,  shows  that  young  Edward 
could  admire  other  companions  than  the  wretched 
crew  catalogued  by  Knyghton,  the  Canon  of  Leicester. 
It  is  true  that  both  seem  to  have  had  one  taste  in 
common  for  horses.  But  it  was  the  intimacy  of  the 
relations  between  the  prelate  and  the  prince  that 
caused  the  former  to  be  charged  with  the  crime  of 
treason.  He  made  an  abject  submission  to  the  king, 
who  seized  on  all  his  property,  and  prohibited  all 
persons  from  giving  him  aid  or  shelter.  Had  it  not 
been  for  some  good  monks  of  Canterbury,  who  dis- 
obeyed the  king's  orders,  the  primate  would  have 
died  of  starvation. 

Having  illustrated  the  character  of  the  prince  by 
these  samples  from  his  correspondence,  I  return  to 


104       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  course  of  his  life,  and  have  to  state  that  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  1306,  was  long  remembered  in  London 
for  its  glories  and  its  cost.  On  the  previous  first  of 
April,  the  king,  before  setting  out  for  Scotland,  had 
summoned  all  noblemen  and  gentlemen,  bound  by- 
fee  to  take  such  service,  to  repair  to  Westminster  in 
order  that  they  might  receive  the  honour  of  knight- 
hood. At  the  same  time  notice  was  given  to  them 
that  their  costumes  on  the  occasion  would  be  fur- 
nished from  the  royal  wardrobe.  The  royal  tailors 
and  embroiderers  must  have  had  a  busy  time  of  it, 
for  the  candidates  for  knighthood  amounted  to  sev- 
eral hundreds,  and  the  costumes,  including  caps  and 
mantles,  were  as  brilliant  as  purple  velvet,  gold,  and 
other  costly  finery  could  make  them.  The  number 
of  recipients  was  larger  than  usual,  because  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  himself  to  be  received  into  the 
order  of  chivalry.  There  were  so  many  —  the  lowest 
number  is  given  at  three  hundred,  which  did  not  in- 
clude twice  as  many  attendants  —  that  there  was  no 
one  room  in  the  palace  of  Westminster  spacious 
enough  to  contain  them.  Recourse  was  had  to  the 
New  (the  present)  Temple  Gardens.  Here  walls  were 
levelled,  apple-trees  pulled  down,  and  tents  and 
wooden  booths  erected,  the  bill  for  which  the  young 
prince  had  to  "  settle  "  some  time  after  his  accession 
to  the  throne.  Edward  and  his  companions  —  that 
is  to  say  those  of  the  noblest  birth  among  them  — 
kept  their  vigils,  on  the  eve  of  the  day  of  the  great 
ceremony,  in  the  cathedral  church  at  Westminster. 
Such  vigils,  in  ordinary  cases,  comprised  (after  bath- 
ing) prayer,  fasting,  and  meditation.  How  these 
customs  were  observed  by  the  mere  gentlemen  who 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  105 

kept  their  vigils  at  the  Temple,  I  cannot  say.  Mr. 
Planchd,  in  his  '*  History  of  British  Costume,"  simply 
records  that  the  young  knight  companions  generally 
"  crowded  in  their  glittering  dresses  the  gardens  of 
the  Temple  which  were  set  apart  for  their  reception, 
and  received  much  injury  in  this  novel  service."  Of 
what  occurred  at  Westminster,  a  more  distinct  account 
is  given  in  the  seventh  volume  of  the  "  Archaeological 
Journal."  From  this  account,  founded  on  ancient 
documents,  we  learn  that  the  vigils  were  of  a  rather 
uproarious  character.  In  place  of  silence  or  prayer, 
trumpets  were  sounded,  pipes  squeaked  forth  a  treble 
accompaniment,  and  unruly  shouts  now  and  then 
ascended  to  the  roof,  creating  altogether  such  confu- 
sion that  the  monks  at  either  side  of  the  choir  could 
not  hear  the  voices  of  those  who  were  seated  opposite 
to  them. 

On  the  Whitsunday,  the  Prince  of  Wales  was 
dubbed  knight,  by  his  father,  in  the  palace  at  West- 
minster. After  which  solemnity  the  prince  proceeded 
to  the  abbey  to  confer  knighthood  on  his  riotous  com- 
panions of  the  vigils.  To  these  were  now  added  an 
immense  crowd  of  spectators  who  had  obtained  pos- 
session of  the  abbey,  and  through  whom  armed  men 
on  horseback  in  vain  endeavoured  to  ride  and  keep 
clear  the  way.  Such  an  indecent  sight  of  crowding 
and  peril  could  only  be  seen  in  these  days  at  a  modern 
drawing-room.  At  Westminster,  however,  there  was 
something  more  than  peril,  there  were  fatal  accidents. 
Each  knight  companion  was  escorted  toward  the  altar 
by  two  knights,  who  had  charge  to  take  care  of  him 
during  the  ceremony.  Some  idea  of  the  tumultuous 
scene  may  be  had  from  the  fact  that,  even  with  this 


io6        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

protection,  the  struggle  through  the  crowd  was  so 
fierce  that  several  knights  fainted,  and  two  of  them 
were  actually  killed.  The  Prince  of  Wales  himself 
was  so  closely  surrounded  that  he  was  unable  to  use 
his  arms  in  order  to  belt  the  newly  made  knights. 
So  intolerable  was  the  pressure  that  he  was  at  last 
compelled  to  mount  on  the  altar  itself,  and  on  that 
unusual  stage  he  performed  the  ceremony  of  making 
knights  of  the  fatigued  and  fainting  young  nobles 
who  could  fight  their  way  to  his  feet.  No  wonder 
is  it,  if,  after  a  night  of  such  vigils,  and  a  day  of 
such  toilsome  seeking  of  knighthood  under  difficulties, 
they  enjoyed  a  cool  and  joyous  evening  in  the  Tem- 
ple Gardens,  where  they  made  the  blossoms  shake 
for  it. 

The  scenes  of  the  prince's  private  life  were  some- 
times in  strange  contrast  with  the  splendour  of  those 
which  marked  his  appearance  in  public.  The  restora- 
tion of  Gaveston  to  his  service  did  not,  of  itself, 
content  him ;  and  this  dissatisfaction  brought  on  a 
particular  scene  of  violence,  of  which  we  have  a  record 
in  the  Latin  chronicle  of  Hemingford,  and  in  which 
the  king  and  the  prince  are  the  chief  actors. 

Hemingford  relates  that  young  Edward  had  raised 
De  Gaveston  from  the  lowest  condition,  —  of  poverty, 
if  not  of  rank,  —  and  had  enriched  him  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power.  To  riches,  the  prince  wished  to  add 
honours,  and  fearing,  as  he  invariably  did,  to  ask  his 
father,  in  person,  to  confer  a  favour  on  a  friend,  he 
applied  to  the  king's  especial  favourite  —  Walter  de 
Langton,  the  royal  treasurer,  whom  Edward  had  ele- 
vated from  a  subordinate  post  in  the  wardrobe  to  a 
seat  on  the  episcopal  bench  —  to  petition  for  this 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  107 

favour  in  the  prince's  name.  The  favour  was  no  light 
one,  it  was  to  the  effect  that  young  "Perot,"  Little 
Peter,  as  the  prince  was  accustomed  to  write  and 
speak  of  him,  might  be  exalted  to  the  dignity  of 
Count  of  Ponthieu! 

The  Bishop '  of  Chester  was  an  agent  who  had 
carried  many  difficult  commissions  to  a  successful 
conclusion,  but  he  accepted  the  one  imposed  on  him 
by  the  prince  with  ominous  reluctance.  He  went 
straightway,  however,  to  the  king,  and  briefly,  and 
without  interlocution,  explained  what  had  brought 
him  into  such  presence. 

"  My  lord  king,"  said  he,  "  I  come  here  on  the  part 
of  my  lord,  the  lord  prince,  your  son,  and  unwillingly 
enough,  as  the  living  God  is  my  witness.  He  requires 
that  I  should  solicit,  in  his  name,  that  the  title  of 
Count  of  Ponthieu  should  be  conferred  on  the  Lord 
Peter  de  Gaveston,  his  bachelor,  if  such  might  be 
done  by  your  good  permission." 

The  king  burst  forth  into  a  fit  of  uncontrollable 
wrath.  **And  by  the  living  God,"  he  exclaimed, 
**  who  art  thou  who  darest  ask  such  a  thing }  Had 
I  not  the  fear  of  God  before  me,  and  the  remem- 
brance of  what  you  said,  that  thou  art  an  unwilling 
agent  in  this  matter,  thou  shouldst  not  escape  rough 
treatment.  But  now  I  will  see  what  he  has  to  say 
who  sent  thee  hither!  And  stay  thou,  meanwhile, 
where  thou  art !  " 

Prince  Edward  was  accordingly  summoned,  and 
speedily  obeyed  the  command.  On  seeing  him,  his 
father  exclaimed,  "What  business  is  this  that  thou 
hast  sent  this  man  upon } " 

The  prince  at  once  replied,  **  To  ask,  with  your 


io8        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

permission,  that  Lord  Peter  de  Gaveston  might  be 
created  Count  de  Ponthieu." 

At  this  cool  rejoinder,  the  king  became  wilder  in 
wrath  than  before,  and  even  flung  unsavoury  names 
at  the  deceased  Queen  Eleanor,  whom  he  had  cer- 
tainly loved  and  respected.  '*  Oh,  ill-begotten  son  of 
a  wanton  mother,"  shrieked  the  foolish  and  false- 
spoken  king,  "thou  art  in  the  mood  to  give  away 
lands,  thou  who  hast  never  won  any  !  "  Then  turning 
from  his  sarcasm  on  the  non-military  disposition  of 
Edward,  he  cried  out,  "  God  alive !  were  it  not  that 
the  kingdom  might  fall  into  anarchy,  I  would  take 
care  that  thou  shouldst  never  come  to  thy  inherit- 
ance." And  from  these  violent  words  he  passed  to 
violent  deeds.  Seizing  the  prince  by  the  head,  with 
both  hands,  he  tore  away  his  hair  by  handful s,  or  as 
much  as  he  could,  —  "  in  quantum  potuity*  to  use  the 
phrase  of  the  chronicler;  and  forthwith  he  ordered 
the  prince  to  be  kept  under  arrest.  Then  summoning 
such  of  his  Council  as  had  accompanied  him  on  the 
expedition  to  Scotland,  and  conferring  together,  they 
came  to  a  resolution  which  is  explained  by  what  fol- 
lowed. Peter  de  Gaveston  was  called  before  the 
board  and  made  to  swear  that,  be  the  king  living  or 
dead,  he  (Peter)  would  never  accept  a  gift  of  lands 
from  the  prince.  He  was  then  made  to  listen  to  a 
decree  of  perpetual  exile  —  a  certain  day  being  named, 
by  which  time  had  he  not  voided  the  kingdom,  his 
life  would  be  forfeit.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  also 
obliged  to  make  oath  that  he  would  never  confer  on 
Gaveston  titles  and  estates,  which  the  latter  had 
sworn  he  would  never  receive,  even  if  proffered. 

The  chronicler  Knyghton  states  that  Gaveston  in 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  109 

his  exile  waited  near  the  sea  and  in  Flanders,  for  the 
death  of  King  Edward.  The  prince  meanwhile  made 
more  open  manifestation  of  his  special  love  for  his 
absent  friend,  and  of  his  hostility  against  those  who 
had  been  the  more  immediate  cause  of  his  favourite's 
banishment. 

At  length  came  the  period,  1307,  when  King 
Edward  was  arrested  by  death  on  his  progress  to 
Scotland,  on  which  progress  he  was  accompanied  by 
his  son,  who  at  Lanercost  was  summoned  to  the 
bedside  of  his  dying  father. 

The  traditionary  account  of  the  last  scene  between 
Edward  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  introduces  us  to  an 
eloquent  dying  king,  and  a  silent,  self-willed  heir, 
whose  respect  for  the  will  of  the  sovereign,  when 
dead,  was  shown  like  that  of  the  French  Regency 
for  the  will  of  Louis  XIV.,  by  entirely  disregarding 
it.  The  young  prince  was  enjoined  to  exercise  the 
virtues  of  mercy,  justice,  courtesy,  and  truth;  to 
have  fellowship  with  the  good,  and  condescension 
for  the  lowly ;  to  love  his  half-brothers  Thomas  and 
Edmund,  but  especially  to  love  and  reverence  their 
mother,  Queen  Marguerite.  His  heart  the  king 
bequeathed,  he  said,  to  the  trusteeship  of  140  knights, 
who  should  bear  it  with  them  to  the  Holy  Land 
(since  he  could  not  fulfil  a  vow  to  go  thither  in 
person),  and  find  prosperity  in  battle,  according  as 
they  kept  the  deposit  safely  and  honourably.  "  I 
have  provided  two  and  thirty  thousand  pounds  of 
silver  for  the  support  of  these  knights,"  said  Ed- 
ward ;  and  —  uncomfortable  remarks  in  the  ears 
of  such  a  son  —  he  calmly  observed  that  he  trusted 
eternal  damnation  would  be  the  award  of  him  who 


no       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

turned  his  money-legacy  from  its  destined  use.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  was,  probably,  equally  uneasy  under 
another  portion  of  the  counsel  given  by  his  dying 
father.  This  related  to  Gaveston,  concerning  whom, 
the  prince  was  told  that,  unless  he  would  incur  his 
father's  curse,  he  should  never  recall  the  pernicious 
favourite,  who  had  abused  the  tender  years  of  the 
prince  with  wicked  vanities.  The  king  remembered 
that  he  had  bound  the  Prince  of  Wales  by  oath,  not 
to  recall  or  receive  Piers  without  his  royal  sanction ; 
and  now  to  bind  him,  when  that  sanction  could  not 
be  given  or  refused,  he  enjoined  the  prince  never  to 
summon  his  former  friend  to  England  without  the 
common  consent ;  seeing,  said  the  king,  that  he  was 
banished  by  common  decree.  Edward  further  en- 
deavoured to  control  his  son's  impatience,  by  counsel- 
ling him  not  to  hasten  to  take  the  crown  of  England 
till  he  had  revenged  the  injuries  the  king  had  experi- 
enced at  the  hands  of  the  Scots.  The  moribund  king 
was  not  fain  to  be  at  peace  with  all  men.  He  could 
forgive  every  one  save  his  enemies  and  a  few  indi- 
viduals, dislike  for  whom  he  could  not  surmount. 
Revenge  on  the  Scots  was  uppermost  in  the  royal 
heart,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  enjoined  to 
accomplish  that  end ;  and  even  to  "  carry  "  (as  Wal- 
singham  and  Speed  assure  us)  "  his  father's  bones 
about  with  him  in  some  coffin  till  he  had  marched 
through  all  Scotland,  and  subdued  all  his  enemies, 
for  none  should  be  able  to  overcome  him  while  his 
skeleton  marched  with  him." 

Although  this  account  is  vouched  for  by  more  than 
the  historians  I  have  cited,  it  has  been  doubted  by 
others ;  while  a  third  class  maintain  that  the  Prince 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  iii 

of  Wales  was  not  present  at  all  at  the  death-bed  of 
his  father.  Perhaps  the  most  terribly  circumstantial 
of  all  the  historians  and  chroniclers  who  record  the 
incidents,  real  or  imaginary,  of  the  last  scene  between 
father  and  son,  is  Froissart.  That  picturesque  gos- 
siper  writes  that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  standing  in 
presence  of  the  king,  the  latter  made  him  swear 
before  all  his  barons,  "  by  the  saints,  that  as  soon  as 
he  should  be  dead,  he  would  have  his  body  boiled  in 
a  large  cauldron,  until  the  flesh  should  be  separated 
from  the  bones ;  that  he  would  have  the  flesh  buried, 
and  the  bones  preserved ;  and  that  every  time  the 
Scots  should  rebel  against  him,  he  should  summon 
his  people,  and  carry  against  them  the  bones  of  his 
father,  for  he  believed  most  firmly,  that  as  long  as 
his  bones  should  be  carried  against  the  Scots,  these 
Scots  would  never  be  victorious," 

Such  a  minute  description  was  enough  to  excite 
the  disgust,  if  not  terror,  rather  than  sympathy  of 
the  prince  for  the  king.  But  perhaps  it  is  as  apoc- 
ryphal as  what  is  said  to  have  taken  place  imme- 
diately after  the  death  of  the  sovereign  who  had 
expressed  to  his  son  his  intense  desire  for  wreaking 
vengeance  on  the  Scots.  It  is  a  Scottish  poet  his- 
torian who  now  speaks,  in  the  "Buik  of  the  Chron- 
icles of  Scotland,  or  a  Metrical  Version  of  the  History 
of  Hector  Boece,  by  William  Stewart,"  who  deposes 
that  — 

••  Right  as  the  soul  did  from  the  body  draw 
An  English  knight  into  a  vision  saw 
Great  Lucifer,  the  master-fiend  of  hell, 
With  many  demons  furious  and  fell, 
Some  at  the  head,  and  others  at  the  feet 
Of  King  Edward,  there  raving  out  the  spirit; 


112        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Then  flew  with  it,  with  many  rueful  roar  j 
Judge  ye  yourself,  for  I  cannot  tell  where." 

That  some  such  mission  as  that  said  to  have  been 
delivered  to  the  prince  by  the  dying  king  was  really 
assigned  to  him,  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  a  speech 
of  Robert  Bruce,  reported  by  Matthew  of  West- 
minster :  "I  am  more  afraid,"  said  he,  **of  the  bones 
of  the  father  dead,  than  of  the  living  son ;  and  by  all 
the  saints,  it  was  more  difficult  to  get  a  foot  of  land 
from  the  old  king,  than  a  whole  kingdom  from  the 
son."  Edward  himself  did  not  more  severely  satirise 
the  unwarlike  disposition  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
when  he  ridiculed  him  —  a  man  who  knew  not  how 
to  win  territory  —  for  wishing  to  confer  it  on  a  worth- 
less favourite. 

There  is  one  incident  to  be  mentioned  by  which  we 
are  enabled  to  measure  the  extravagance  of  the  first 
Prince  of  Wales.  His  debts,  at  his  father's  death, 
amounted  to  ;£28,ooo  sterling,  —  a  sum  which  would 
be  represented  by  nearer  a  half  than  a  quarter  of  a 
milhon  of  money  of  the  present  value.  This  testifies 
to  a  vast  expenditure  on  the  part  of  a  young  man  not 
much  above  twenty  years  of  age,  and  whose  house- 
hold expenses  were  chiefly  supplied  —  but  perhaps 
only  nominally  supplied  —  by  the  king.  However 
this  may  be,  the  latter  could  hardly  reproach  his  son 
on  the  score  of  extravagance;  and  among  the  first 
acts  of  Edward  of  Caernarvon,  after  his  accession, 
was  the  drawing  of  a  bill  on  the  exchequer  to  the 
amount  above  named,  for  the  discharge  of  his  debts 
when  Prince  of  Wales.  At  the  same  time,  and  in  the 
same  way,  he  satisfied  his  father's   creditors ;   and 


EDWARD  OF  CAERNARVON  113 

then,  with  impoverished  treasury,  commenced  a  new 
career  of  costly  extravagance/ 

Twenty  miserable  years,  with  a  few  brief  days  of 
extravagant  joy,  and  a  few,  very  few,  of  calm  felicity, 
intervened  between  the  accession  of  the  first  Prince 
of  Wales  to  the  throne  and  his  death,  1307-27. 
There  was  a  brilliant  marriage  with  Isabelle ;  a  prod- 
igality of  luxury  with  a  poor  treasury  to  meet  the 
cost,  and  a  revolt  of  the  barons,  which  soon  dispersed 
all  thoughts  of  inglorious  ease.  To  be  the  king's 
favourite  was  but  to  inherit  death,  though  the  fate  of 
one  brought  with  it  no  experience  to  his  successor  — 
Despenser  perishing  as  miserably  as  Gaveston.  The 
military  reputation  of  England  was  humiliated  at 
Bannockbum ;  famine  followed  upon  defeat ;  sickness 
attended  famine;  and  the  children  of  Edward  were 
bom  when  particular  calamity  was  pressing  upon 
England  or  the  king.  The  end  of  all  was  that  dread- 
ful scene  at  Berkley  Castle,  the  horrors  of  which 
contrast  so  strongly  with  the  joyous  shouts  that  wel- 
comed Edward's  birth  at  Caernarvon.  Around  his 
cradle,  gay  and  gallant  groups  of  ladies,  priests,  and 
nobles ;  around  his  death-bed,  a  couple  of  murderers 
and  their  assistants.  Cries  of  joy  hailed  his  birth, 
his  own  shrieks  heralded  his  death;  but  they  were 
heard  far  over  the  village  near  the  castle,  and  the 
startled  inhabitants  there  listened  in  terror,  and 
prayed  for  the  poor  soul  that  was  passing  away  in 
such  unutterable  torture. 

Thus  the  first  EngUsh  Prince  of  Wales  was  the 
first  King  of  England  who  was  deposed  and  mur- 
dered. 

*  "  Archaeologia,"  v.  zxviii.  p.  248. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EDWARD    OF    WINDSOR,    SECOND    PRINCE   OF    WALES 
Bom  13 12.     Died  (King  of  England)  1379 

In  a  painted  glass  window  in  one  of  the  canon's 
houses  in  Windsor  Castle  (the  window  is  over  the 
cloisters  adjoining  the  chapel)  there  is  a  horoscope 
or  astrological  scheme  of  nativity.  It  was  cast  to 
show  the  aspect  of  the  heavens  at  the  moment  of  the 
birth  of  the  first  child  of  Edward  11.  and  the  youth- 
ful Isabelle  of  France.  That  child,  subsequently  the 
renowned  Edward  III.,  was  born  at  Windsor,  at 
twenty  minutes  to  six  on  the  morning  of  the  1 3th  of 
November,  13 12.  The  horoscope  informs  us  that 
the  sixth  degree  of  Scorpio  was  then  ascending,  and 
the  eighteenth  degree  of  Leo  was,  at  that  auspicious 
moment,  culminating.  What  this  foretold  it  would 
be  difficult  to  say,  but  in  the  scorpion  and  the  lion, 
those  who  placed  faith  in  horoscopes  affected  to  see 
—  when  Edward  of  Windsor  had  completed  his 
career  —  a  foreshadowing  of  the  prince  who  was 
made  to  depose  his  father,  and  of  the  king  who 
raised  the  fame  of  the  military  glory  of  England  to 
a  height  it  had  never  reached  before. 

King  Edward  II.  was  then  sorrowing  for  the  loss 
of  his  favourite  Gaveston,  who  had  been  executed  by 
the  barons  a  few  weeks  previously.     But  the  birth  of 

114 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  115 

a  son  made  some  amends  for  the  death  of  his  bosom 
friend  ;  and  a  life  annuity  of  ^£20,  conferred  on  the 
happy  couple  of  the  queen's  household  from  whom 
he  learned  the  long-desired  intelligence,  proved  the 
value  at  which  he  estimated  the  news. 

The  birth  of  a  prince  at  Windsor  was  considered 
of  such  importance  that  the  queen  herself  notified 
the  auspicious  circumstance  in  a  letter  to  the  Mayor 
of  London,  purporting  to  be  from  her  own  hand,  and 
written  on  the  day  that  the  prince  was  born.  The 
letter,  a  copy  of  which,  in  Norman  French,  is  pre- 
served in  the  British  Museum  (Add.  MSS.,  15,664), 
is  to  this  effect : 

"  Isabelle,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Queen  of  England, 
Lady  of  Ireland,  and  Duchess  of  Aquitaine,  to  our 
well-beloved  the  mayor  and  aldermen  of  the  com- 
munity of  London,  health.  Because  we  believe  that 
you  will  hear  the  good  news  with  alacrity,  we  make 
known  to  you  that  our  Lord,  by  his  grace,  delivered 
us  of  a  son,  on  the  13th  day  of  November,  to  the 
safety  of  ourselves  and  of  the  child.  May  our  Lord 
keep  you !  Given  at  Windsor,  on  the  above-named 
day." 

This  missive  was  entrusted  by  the  queen  to  John 
de  Phalaise,  the  tailor  of  her  household.  The  date 
above  given  fell  on  a  Saturday,  but  the  tardy  tailor 
did  not  reach  London  till  the  following  Tuesday; 
and  he  found,  to  his  chagrin,  that  the  joyous  news 
had  been  made  known  to  the  mayor  and  aldermen, 
by  another  announcer,  on  the  day  previous  —  the 
Monday.  The  earlier  Martinmas  Mercury  had  set 
the  whole  city  in  an  uproar  of  delight,  and  John  the 
tailor  arrived  with  his  letter  when  the  rejoicings  were 


ii6        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

nearly  half  over.  On  the  Monday  in  question,  the 
mayor  and  aldermen  and  a  great  crowd  of  the  com- 
monalty assembled  at  the  "  Gyhalli  "  (as  we  are  told 
in  the  "memoranda"  appended  to  the  copy  of  the 
royal  letter),  at  vesper  time,  they  set  the  bells  a-chim- 
ing,  manifested  a  world  of  joy,  and  went  proces- 
sionally  through  the  city  by  a  resplendent  light  from 
torches,  to  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  other  gladden- 
ing minstrelsy.  And  on  the  Tuesday  morning  early, 
long  before  the  lagging  tailor  had  reached  the  city, 
the  special  holiday  had  commenced.  Orders  had 
been  proclaimed  that  no  sort  of  work,  labour,  or 
opening  of  shop  should  be  done  that  day.  Accord- 
ingly, every  one  apparelled  himself  in  the  most 
honourable  fashion  with  which  he  was  acquainted  {in 
las  plus  honurable  maude  q'il  saveit),  and  repaired  to 
the  "  Gyhalli,"  whence  the  mayor  and  good  people 
went  "  togetherly,"  or  ens  emblement y  as  the  original 
has  it,  to  St.  Paul's,  for  two  especial  purposes,  —  to 
give  praises  and  "offerings,"  in  honour  of  God  who 
had  bestowed  on  them  this  grace  —  of  a  prince,  and 
also  to  show  their  reverence  for  the  child  so  recently 
born.  This  done,  they  returned  to  the  Guildhall, 
and  there  did  what  was  devised,  and  amused  them- 
selves till  the  hour  of  afternoon  service. 

At  this  later  period  there  was  another  joyous  and 
God-praising  assemblage,  again  on  their  way  to  St. 
Paul's,  with  the  chief  magistrate  and  aldermen  at 
their  head.  In  the  cathedral,  the  metropolitan  bishop 
himself  officiated,  singing,  as  we  are  told,  with  great 
sollempnete.  Again  the  citizens  deposited  their 
thank-offerings,  and  then  the  bells  were  again  swung, 
and  carillons  of  brazen  gladness  were  "  fired "  over 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  117 

the  city.  A  musical  procession  was  then  formed  to 
the  Guildhall,  where  the  good  people  separated,  and 
each  man  went  in  peace  to  his  own  house. 

Meanwhile,  that  slow-paced  tailor  had  made  his 
appearance ;  and,  laggard  as  he  was,  it  was  not 
thought  convenient  to  allow  a  queen's  messenger  to 
go  unrewarded,  even  for  news  which  no  longer  pos- 
sessed the  quality  of  novelty.  On  Wednesday  morn- 
ing, therefore,  the  city  authorities  met  together, 
and,  inviting  her  Majesty's  leaden-heeled  herald  to 
appear  before  them,  thanked  him  for  the  information 
of  which  he  had  been  graciously  made  the  bearer 
by  the  queen  ;  and  in  acknowledgment  thereof,  pre- 
sented him  with  ^^xii.  di-sterling,"  and  a  silver  cup 
of  four  ounces  in  weight.  John  de  Phalaise  accepted 
the  present  sulkily,  kept  it  for  a  day,  and  on  the 
Thursday  morning  "returned  the  gift,  because  it 
appeared  to  him  to  be  too  little"  {remaunda  la  dour 
avant-dit  pur  cet  qili  sembloit  trop  poi).  The  unrea- 
sonable tailor  was  probably  offended  because  he  was 
not  presented  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold 
box  studded  with  diamonds  ! 

What  came  of  his  discontent  is  not  recorded.  It 
did  not,  at  all  events,  check  the  hilarity  which  had 
not  yet  concluded.  On  the  following  Monday  there 
was  a  wonderful  cavalcade  from  the  city  to  West- 
minster, in  which  aldermen  went  fearlessly  on  horse- 
back, and  the  draper-mercers  especially  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  equestrian  efficiency  and  the 
splendour  of  their  dresses  —  in  a  troop,  where  mayor 
and  aldermen  rode  like  knights,  and  were  apparelled 
like  monarchs.  At  Westminster  they  made  fresh 
thank-offerings  in  the  abbey,  and  thence  returned  to 


ii8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  Guildhall,  where  they  dined  in  state ;  and  prob- 
ably dined  exceedingly  well,  for  the  old  writer  of  the 
"  memoranda  "  states  that,  after  dinner,  the  good  fel- 
lows went  en  karole  joyously  throughout  the  city,  not 
only  during  the  rest  of  the  day,  but  during  a  great 
part  of  the  night !  It  was  altogether  a  glorious  Mon- 
day, for  the  conduit  in  Cheap  ran  with  wine,  of  which 
all  who  chose  might  drink  ;  and  at  the'jousting-cross 
before  St.  Michael's  Church,  in  West  Cheap,  a  tent 
was  raised  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  beneath  which 
stood  a  lusty  butt  of  wine  for  every  passer-by  who 
desired  to  quaff  thereof  to  the  health  of  Prince 
Edward  of  Windsor. 

Those  were  something  like  popular  rejoicings  for 
the  birth  of  an  heir  to  the  throne  !  The  people  were 
not  only  bidden  to  feel  joy,  but  the  wine  was  provided 
for  them  that  should  make  their  hearts  glad. 

It  was  not  a  mere  passing  joy,  for  on  the  morrow, 
after  Candlemas,  the  fishermen  of  London,  in  bright 
and  costly  dresses,  carried  up  to  Westminster  a 
superb  ship  which  they  had  constructed  and  freighted 
with  offerings,  and  presented  it  there  to  the  royal 
mother  of  the  little  Edward,  And  it  happened  that, 
on  that  very  day,  the  queen  set  out  on  pilgrimage  to 
Canterbury ;  and  the  citizens  of  high  degree,  com- 
monalty and  all,  turned  out,  dressed  in  their  best, 
escorting  the  queen,  or  otherwise  doing  her  honour 
as  she  passed.  In  such  wise  did  the  Londoners 
rejoice  for  the  happy  birth  of  the  second  Prince 
of  Wales. 

The  royal  father  soon  conferred  more  brilliant  gifts 
upon  the  little  prince.  Before  the  latter  was  two 
days  old,  the  king  formally  granted  him  the  counties 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  119 

of  Chester  and  Flint,  reserving  certain  specified 
manors.  He  also  presented  to  the  unconscious  boy 
a  gift  of  the  castle  and  manor  of  Holt ;  and  on 
the  evening  of  the  second  day  after  the  prince's 
birth,  the  king  had  signed  a  deed  in  which  the  prince 
was  styled  "Edward,  Earl  of  Chester,  our  dearly 
loved  son ; "  EdwarduSy  Comes  CestricBy  filius  noster 
charissimus,  ^ 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  the  little  Earl  of 
Chester  was  baptised  under  that  Christian  name  till 
four  days  after  his  birth.  Indeed,  there  had  been 
some  difficulty  in  reference  to  the  name  he  was  to 
bear.  The  young  queen's  nephew,  heir  to  the  throne 
of  France,  was  a  Prince  Louis ;  and  the  young 
queen's  uncle,  Louis,  Count  of  Evreux,  was  then 
residing,  an  honoured  guest,  at  Windsor.  This  visitor 
was  to  be  one  of  the  godfathers  of  the  heir  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  he  suggested  to  his  niece  that  the  name 
which  was  borne  by  himself  and  by  the  eldest  "  Child 
of  France,"  was  a  very  fitting  one  to  give  to  his 
English  grandnephew,  the  Earl  of  Chester.  There 
were  many  French  nobles  and  ladies  at  court  who 
warmly  supported  the  suggestion  ;  but  the  suggestion 
itself,  however  highly  approved  by  Isabelle  of  France, 
was  most  distasteful  to  the  father  and  kinsmen  of  the 
earl  in  the  cradle.  It  would  not  have  been  more 
acceptable  to  the  English  people  at  large.  To  lay  so 
thoroughly  foreign  a  name  on  the  head  of  a  prince 
descended  from  Alfred  the  Great,  would  have  been 
unkind  to  the  heir,  and  almost  an  insult  to  the  nation  ; 
and,  accordingly,  that  heir  was  carried  to  the  ancient 
chapel  of  St.   Edward,   where  Arnold,    Cardinal  of 

*  Tighe  and  Davies  :  Annals  of  Windsor. 


120       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Santa  Prisca,  received  him  at  the  font,  and  christened 
him  by  the  name  of  his  father  and  the  royal  "  con- 
fessor.'* The  chroniclers  of  the  day  have  omitted  to 
record  the  list  of  godmothers  on  this  occasion ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  possess  that  of  the  god- 
fathers, which  comprises  seven  persons,  —  three 
bishops,  Richard  of  Poictiers,  John  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  and  William  of  Worcester ;  one  duke,  John  of 
Bretagne ;  one  earl,  Aymer  de  Valence  of  Pembroke ; 
and  that  doughty  and  ill-fated  old  knight,  Hugh  le 
Despenser.  Under  these  auspices  was  the  infant 
christened;  and  Prince  Edward  was  then  proces- 
sionally  taken  back  to  his  apartments,  as  handsome 
and  vigorous  a  baby  as  was  ever  sprinkled  with  holy 
water  by  the  hand  of  cardinal  or  priest. 

Edward  of  Windsor  grew  in  strength  and  beauty, 
and  the  chroniclers  unite  in  informing  us  that  Edward 
was  well  instructed  in  all  things  that  seemed  "  neces- 
sary or  proper  "  for  princes  to  excel  in.  He  was  of 
vigorous  parts,  improved  rapidly,  and  his  judgment, 
nature,  and  discretion  are  said  to  have  been  of  ex- 
cellent quality. 

The  prince's  next  brother,  John,  came  into  the 
world  at  Eltham,  when  King  Edward  was  prosecuting 
the  war  which  came  to  such  fatal  end  at  Bannock- 
bum.  In  13 18,  when  England  was  yet  suffering 
from  the  famine  that  had  succeeded  the  war,  the 
Princess  Eleanor  first  saw  the  light;  and  in  1322 
another  sister  was  bom,  also  amid  circumstances  of 
gloom.  The  queen's  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Lancaster, 
had  just  before  been  condemned  by  the  king  to  suffer 
death  as  a  traitor;  and  the  two  Mortimers,  one 
of  whom  was  the  evil  genius  of  Isabelle,  were  lying. 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  121 

prisoners,  in  the  Tower.  In  that  palace  and  prison, 
the  royal  family,  all  except  the  king,  were  then 
residing,  and  there  the  queen  gave  birth  to  "Joanna 
of  the  Tower."  There  was  discomfort  there,  as  well 
as  gloom  abroad,  and  John  de  Cromwell  was  removed 
from  the  constableship  of  the  fortress,  "because  he 
neglected  to  look  at  the  dwelling-places  of  the  Tower, 
and  because  the  rain  came  down  upon  the  bed  of  the 
Queen  of  England,  when  she  gave  birth  to  the  girl 
named  Johanne ;  **  or,  as  the  pleasant  author  of  the 
"  Liber  Albus  "  (vol.  ii.  409)  graphically  expresses  it, 
—  "Johanne  de  Crombewelle  ...  a  Constabularia 
Turris  .  .  .  amotus,  eo  quod  male  custodiebat  domos 
Turris,  et  quia  pluviebat  super  lectum  Reginae  Ang- 
liae,  puellam  nomine  Johannam  parturientis  ibidem." 

With  his  brother  and  sister.  Prince  Edward  was  for 
no  considerable  period  associated ;  but,  as  heir  of 
England,  there  were  appointed  certain  noble  youths 
as  his  "  companions ; "  and  in  his  early  boyhood  his 
position  with  respect  to  the  principality  seems  to  have 
been  marked  by  the  appointment  of  a  young  Griffin, 
son  of  a  "Sir  Griffin  of  Wales,"  to  be  one  of  the 
companions  of  the  youthful  Prince  Edward  of  Wind- 
sor. Of  the  influences  of  this  and  other  companions 
we  know  nothing.  It  is  otherwise  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  the  prince's  tutor ;  this  was  Richard  de 
Bury,  or  Aungerville  —  the  latter  being  his  family 
name,  the  former  that  of  the  Suffolk  town  in  which 
he  was  bom.  He  was  an  excellent  divine,  an  efficient 
philosopher,  a  holy  and  a  cheerful-hearted  man. 
Lord  Campbell  traces  to  the  tutor  that  love  for 
literature  and  the  arts  which  the  royal  pupil  ulti- 
mately displayed.     Richard  was,  at  all  events,  a  bril- 


122       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

liant  wit ;  but  he  was  an  indifferent  Latinist,  if  we 
may  judge  from  his  own  work,  the  **  Philobiblon." 
His  services  to  Prince  Edward,  however,  gave  great 
satisfaction,  and  this  poor  priest,  of  a  knightly  family 
of  Bury,  rose  to  be  Treasurer  of  Gascony,  Bishop  of 
Durham,  and  Chancellor  of  England.  Prince  Edward 
**  loved  him,  as  he  said,  beyond  all  the  clerks  in  the 
realm  ; "  and  in  after  life  when  striving  to  obtain  pre- 
ferment for  him  from  the  Pope,  he  supported  his 
application,  on  his  experience  of  his  old  tutor  as  one 
ever  ready  to  aid  him,  and  as  being  a  man  foreseeing 
and  far-seeing,  pure  of  life  and  conversation,  rich  in 
learning,  and  circumspect  in  the  conduct  of  affairs. 
Altogether,  it  may  be  said  that  Prince  of  Wales  had 
never  a  tutor  better  quaUfied  (save  in  Latinity)  for  his 
responsible  task. 

Aungerville  was  especially  distinguished  for  his 
love  of  books.  In  his  "  Philobiblon,"  that  agreeable 
rhapsody  on  literature  and  literary  works,  he  glorifies 
himself,  as  it  were,  that  he  was  attached  to  the 
prince's  house,  inasmuch  as  it  afforded  him  leisure 
and  opportunity  for  looking  after  the  sole  game  which 
he  cared  to  hunt  for.  He  does  not  especially  refer 
to  his  tutorship  and  the  prince's  pupilage,  but  he 
slyly  intimates  how  Philip  of  Macedon  blessed  God 
that  his  son  was  born  when  Aristotle  was  alive  to  be 
his  tutor !  We  may  infer  from  his  book  something 
of  what  he  taught,  or  of  the  spirit  of  his  teaching. 
Throughout  all  Greek  and  Latin  history,  he  says, 
rather  boldly,  that  there  was  no  instance  of  a  prince 
of  true  nobility  who  was  not  well  skilled  in  literature. 
He  is  especially  glad  that  Julius  Caesar  wrote  his  own 
Commentaries,  and  some  poetry  to  boot ;  that  Tibe- 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  123 

rius  composed  lyrics,  and  Claudius  verses  of  various 
quality;  that  Julius  and  Augustus  invented  secret 
modes  of  writing  by  transposition  of  letters,  and  that 
Titus  was  so  skilful  in  imitating  other  people's  hand- 
writing, that  he  might,  had  he  chosen  it,  have  been 
the  most  successful  forger  in  the  world  I  These  ex- 
amples presented  to  the  prince  failed,  however,  to 
make  him  either  the  historian  of  his  achievements,  or 
the  bard  of  his  own  deeds. 

Edward  could  hardly  avoid  being  influenced  by  the 
enthusiasm  of  his  tutor  for  books.  At  every  spare 
moment  of  his  time,  whatever  his  ostensible  or  posi- 
tive duties  may  have  been,  his  relaxation  and  his 
delight  was  to  visit  monasteries,  cells,  monks,  and 
dealers  in  manuscripts  and  books,  in  search  of  his 
beloved  volumes.  For  this  search  he  abandoned 
palaces  and  companionship  with  the  great,  —  though 
for  the  latter  he  affected  to  be  working,  —  laying  down 
as  a  law  that  literature  and  learning  generally  became 
a  prince,  statesman,  judge,  and  cleric,  but  that  other 
people  had  no  claim  to  the  privileges  indicated  by 
those  two  words.  He  liberally  gave  all  his  own  books 
as  the  foundation  of  a  lending  library  at  Oxford.  He 
did  it,  he  said,  for  the  good  of  his  own  soul,  the  souls 
of  his  parents,  and  of  his  pupil  Edward  of  Windsor, 
and  some  others  ;  but  the  volumes  were  prohibited 
from  being  lent  to  any  but  clerical  students ;  ledgers 
he  held  to  be  the  proper  books  for  laymen  —  and 
yet  his  epigraph  on  the  "  Philobiblon  "is  "  Non  qucero 
quod  mihi  utile  esty  sed  quod  multis  "  —  I  do  not  seek 
what  is  useful  to  myself  only,  but  to  many."  It  was 
not  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  that  the  prince's  tutor 
should  be  desirous  to  be  profitable  "to  all."     Such 


124       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  the  tutor  to  whom  the  tall,  well-shaped,  stoutly 
built  Prince  of  Wales  was  indebted  for  his  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  of  law,  history  and  divinity  —  French, 
Spanish,  and  German  he  acquired  from  other  teachers, 
and  altogether,  this  vivacious  and  graceful  young 
prince  was  exceedingly  well  informed. 

Of  the  amusements  of  the  prince  with  his  "  com- 
panions," there  is  no  record  on  close  or  patent  roll, 
nor  any  trace  elsewhere  with  which  I  am  acquainted, 
except  one,  perhaps,  in  the  Topographical  Collec- 
tions, MSS.,  vol.  iii.  p.  153,  in  the  British  Museum, 
wherein  I  find  the  roll  of  accounts  of  "John  de 
Crumbewell,"  that  lieutenant  or  constable  of  the 
Tower,  who  lost  his  place  for  not  keeping  the  rain 
from  the  queen's  bed.  This  official,  who  received 
jCioo  a,  year,  —  a  salary  which  was  often  taken  up  in 
his  absence,  by  his  thrifty  wife  Idonea,  —  rendered  an 
account  of  his  thirteen  years'  stewardship  on  resigning 
his  charge.  The  roll  has  considerable  interest,  but, 
there  are  two  entries  only  which  are  connected  with 
my  subject.  The  first  runs  thus:  "In  support  of 
the  leopard  of  our  lord  the  King,  being  in  the  Tower, 
and  of  his  keeper,  from  Sunday  before  the  feast 
of  St.  Hilary,  viz.,  the  nth  of  January,  in  the  eighth 
year  of  Edward  II.,  to  Easter  Day  following,  the 
13th  of  April  —  four  score  and  thirteen  days  at  ^d. 
per  day,  j£i  ^s.  3^.'*  "The  leopard  of  our  lord 
the  king,"  was  doubtless  a  spectacle  for  the  young 
prince  and  his  companions ;  and  was,  perhaps,  a 
descendant  of  the  family  of  three  leopards  sent  by 
the  Emperor  Frederick  to  Henry  III.,  as  a  living 
illustration  of  the  English  shield  of  arms.  Prince 
Edward  seems  to  have  had  some  love  for  collecting 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  125 

animals,  as  he  subsequently  added  to  the  single 
leopard  maintained  in  his  father's  time ;  and  after  he 
became  king,  there  was  not  only  the  old  leopard,  but 
"one  lion,  one  lioness,  and  two  cat  lions,"  says 
Stowe,  **  in  the  said  Tower,  committed  to  the  custody 
of  Robert,  son  of  John  Bowre."  Thus,  the  second 
Prince  of  Wales  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
true  originator  or  origin  of  the  menagerie  in  the 
Tower,  which  was  only  abolished  in  the  year  1834, 
and  the  exhibition  of  which  did  not  tend  to  edi- 
fication, seeing  that  nearly  five  centuries  after  the 
establishment  of  Edward's  leopard,  any  person  was 
allowed  to  enter  gratis y  who  brought  with  him  a  little 
dog  to  be  thrown  to  the  lions  ! 

The  second  entry  on  the  constable's  roll  shows 
that  the  new  dignity  which  now  seemed  natural  to 
heirs  apparent  had  had  its  peculiar  influences,  —  the 
lane  outside  the  Tower  Gate  being  called  "Petit 
Wales."  The  constable  acknowledges  "qj.  received 
from  Walter  Coleman,  Esq.,  for  the  king's  tenement 
in  the  lane  called  Petit  Wales,  without  the  Tower 
Gate."  In  Stowe' s  days,  the  ruins  of  stone  mansions 
in  Petty  Wales  testified  to  the  ancient  splendour  of 
the  locality ;  but  he  is  inclined  to  give  credit  to  a 
tradition  of  his  time  that  "  this  great  stone  building 
was  sometimes  the  lodging  appointed  for  the  old 
native  Princes  of  Wales  when  they  repaired  to  this 
city;  and  that  therefore  the  street  in  that  part  is 
called  Petty  Wales,  which  name  remaineth  there 
most  commonly  unto  this  day,  even  as  where  Kings 
of  Scotland  used  to  be  lodged  betwixt  Charing  Cross 
and  Whitehall,  it  is  likewise  called  *  Scotland ; '  and 
where  the  Earls  of  Bretagne  were  lodged  without 


126       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Aldersgate,  the  street  is  called  Britain  Street**  — 
now  "Little  Britain." 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  royal  life,  at  this 
time,  seems  to  have  been  perpetual  restlessness. 
The  sovereigns  and  their  children  were  never  long 
together  in  the  same  place.  When  Prince  Edward 
was  seven  years  old  (13 19),  and  the  king  was  ad- 
vancing on  Berwick,  he  resided  with  his  mother  at 
Brotherton.  There  an  attempt  was  made  by  Earl 
Douglas  to  carry  off  the  whole  family  prisoners ;  but 
before  the  earl,  at  the  head  of  a  large  force,  could 
reach  the  royal  residence,  information  was  despatched 
to  the  queen  of  the  peril  she  was  in,  one  of  the 
scouts  of  the  earl  having  been  captured,  and  exam- 
ined by  the  authorities,  to  whom  he  was  communica- 
tive in  proportion  with  his  own  risk.  Officers  having 
been  sent  with  the  alarming  news,  the  queen  was 
enabled  to  carry  off  her  children  in  safety  to  York,  and, 
subsequently,  for  greater  security,  to  Nottingham. 

In  these  flights,  and  indeed  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  constant  travelling,  the  illustrious  wayfarers  gen- 
erally sought  or  constrained  the  hospitality  of  the 
monasteries.  If  the  heads  of  these  had  given  any 
offence  to  the  travellers,  their  liberality  was  taxed 
to  the  utmost.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  case 
with  the  abbot  of  Peterborough,  whose  guests  the 
royal  family  became,  to  his  very  sore  cost.  This 
renowned  personage  was  even  made  for  a  time  —  a 
long  eight  weeks  —  the  guardian  of  the  prince  and 
his  two  sisters,  with  their  attendants,  all  of  whom 
were  quartered  on  the  abbot,  converting  the  tranquil 
abode  into  a  noisy  locality,  and  causing  an  outlay  of 
money  which  heavily  grieved  the  community. 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  127 

Of  the  extreme  childhood  of  Edward  little  more  is 
known  ;  and  what  befell  him  when  his  parents  had 
quarrelled  and  held  separate  households,  it  were 
fruitless  to  inquire.  The  king,  estranged  from  his 
wife,  rested  on  the  friendship  of  the  Despensers. 
The  queen,  who  is  supposed  to  have  formed  an 
acquaintance  in  the  Tower  with  Roger  Mortimer, 
the  forager  on  the  Despensers*  Welsh  lands,  cared 
now  little  for  her  husband,  but  very  much  for  Roger. 
Miserable  were  the  dissensions  that  ensued,  and  the 
misery  was  increased  by  the  intelligence  from  France 
of  the  intention  of  the  new  king,  Charles  the  Fair,  to 
seize  on  the  territory  held  there  by  Edward,  unless 
he  immediately  rendered  for  them  the  accustomed 
homage.  Isabelle  must  have  exercised  some  influ- 
ence still  over  the  king,  or  the  latter  and  the  Des- 
pensers must  have  been  glad  to  be  relieved  of  her 
presence,  for,  when  the  difficulty  was  at  the  greatest, 
the  resolution  was  acted  on  that  the  queen  should 
repair  to  France,  and  mediate  for  a  peace  between 
the  two  monarchs. 

Meanwhile,  in  1322,  was  held  that  Parliament  at 
York,  the  earls,  barons,  and  "  communities  "  forming 
which,  granted  to  the  king  one-tenth  of  the  goods 
of  the  community  of  the  kingdom,  and  one-sixth  of 
those  of  citizens,  burgesses,  and  tenants  of  ancient 
demesnes.  The  gratification  of  King  Edward  was 
considerable,  and  it  is  a  tradition  that  it  was  in 
this  Parliament  the  investiture  of  Edward  of  Windsor 
took  place  as  Prince  of  Wales.  No  documentary  evi- 
dence of  the  fact  exists,  and,  therefore,  some  writers 
assert  that  Edward  of  Windsor  is  nowhere  found  to 
have  used  that  title,  although  he  is  almost  universally 


128       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

reckoned  as  the  second  prince  of  the  illustrious  line. 
On  the  other  hand,  that  accomplished  archaeologist, 
Mr.  Wynne,  says  that  in  not  one  of  the  minister's 
accounts  for  Wales,  nor  in  any  other  authentic  docu- 
ment of  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  that  he  has  seen, 
"does  it  appear  that  at  any  time  during  that  reign 
Wales  was  under  the  government  of  a  prince." 

This  doubt  may  permit  us  to  observe  greater  brev- 
ity in  narrating  the  outlines  of  the  prince's  life. 
When  his  mother  set  out  for  France,  in  March, 
1325,  she  parted  apparently  on  good  terms  with 
Edward,  and  was  gracious  toward  the  Despensers, 
whom  she  hated.  She  went  unaccompanied  by  the 
young  prince,  but  certainly  not  without  the  intention 
of  causing  him  to  follow  her.  To  dupe  her  husband 
was  no  difficult  task,  but  she  duped  the  favourites 
also,  and,  from  the  day  she  sailed  across  the  Channel, 
the  king  began  to  slip  from  the  throne  on  which  the 
young  and  innocent  prince  was  so  soon  to  replace 
him. 

From  the  day  of  Isabelle's  landing  at  Whitsand, 
near  Calais,  till  that  of  her  arrival  in  Paris,  about 
three  weeks  had  elapsed.  She  landed  on  Saturday,  the 
9th  of  March,  and  reached  the  capital  on  the  ist  of 
April  following.  Sir  Thomas  de  Londres  accom- 
panied her,  with  ;^  1,000  in  hand  for  her  expenses, 
and  power  to  draw,  in  Paris,  on  the  King  of  England 
for  more ;  but  even  this  did  not  suffice  for  the  cost  of 
the  expedition,  as  she  had  designed  it.  Slowly  she 
crept  on  from  town  to  town,  and  on  her  devious  route 
passed  by  that  field  of  Cressy  where  her  son  and  her 
son's  son  were,  hereafter,  to  reap  so  golden  a  crop  of 
what  men  gloss  over  by  the  name  of  "glory." 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  129 

The  details  of  her  route  and  residence  may  be  read 
in  ledger-book  correctness  in  the  "  Archaeologia." 
Her  outward  life  was  that  of  an  extremely  fash- 
ionable lady  of  her  day.  She  gave  superb  dinners 
at  her  apartments  in  the  Castle  of  Vincennes,  her 
brother,  Charles  the  Fair,  helping  to  load  the  table 
with  viands.  The  most  sumptuous  banquets  were 
those  at  which  she  entertained  the  bishops.  One 
of  these  dinners  cost  her  not  less  than  ;£^32,  more 
than  double  the  ordinary  amount  of  her  household 
expenses  for  a  day.  Conferences  with  the  king,  her 
brother,  and  correspondence  with  the  king,  her  hus- 
band, and  communications  to  her  son,  the  prince, 
proceeded  from  day  to  day,  all  on  the  subject  of 
the  homage  to  be  rendered  by  Edward  to  Charles. 
Meanwhile,  the  queen  made  pleasant  excursions  into 
the  provinces,  visited  churches  and  shrines,  made 
trips  to  view  various  relics,  and  entered  prodigally 
into  the  other  dissipations  then  in  mode,  such  as 
having  gay  little  parties  of  ladies,  where  wine  and 
sweetmeats  were  the  aids  to  communicativeness. 

It  required  two  months  to  enable  her  to  bring 
about  a  peace,  under  condition  that  Edward  should 
personally  render  homage  for  his  possessions  in 
France.  This  conclusion  was  made  on  the  31st 
May ;  and,  for  more  than  three  months  that  ensued, 
Edward  was  for  ever  preparing  to  perform  the 
arduous  task,  and  never  advancing  a  step  sincerely 
toward  accomplishing  it. 

At  length  came  that  apparently  innocent  pro- 
posal from  the  queen,  that  her  son,  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  should  repair,  as  his  father's  representative, 
to  France,  and  pay  the  homage  owing  by  his  sire. 


130       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

This  little  formality  concluded,  Isabelle  and  the  boy 
would  immediately  return  to  England  together; 
there  would  be  peace  then  at  home  and  abroad. 

There  were  two  things  of  which  Edward  stood  in 
dread,  —  his  wife's  influence  over  their  son,  and  the 
boy's  being  drawn  into  a  marriage  distasteful  to  the 
king ;  and  yet  he  adopted  a  course  which  led  inevi- 
tably to  the  catastrophe  which  he  was  most  desirous 
to  avoid.  There  is  something  touching  in  the  mem- 
ory of  his  anxiety,  his  helplessness,  and  his  fitful  joy. 
The  last  feeling  was  occasioned  by  his  hopes  of  suc- 
cess in  bringing  about  a  betrothal  between  the  Prince 
of  Wales  and  a  princess  of  Spain.  But  whatever  his 
transient  joy,  his  fears  and  his  weakness  were  para- 
mount. In  August  he  had  formally  appointed  the 
prince  to  exercise  royal  authority  in  England,  under 
certain  guidance,  during  his  own  absence  in  France 
to  pay  that  hateful  personal  homage ;  but  soon  after, 
he  gladly  revoked  the  appointment,  resigned  his  Con- 
tinental dominions  to  the  prince,  and  resolved  to 
send  him,  as  suggested  by  the  French  faction,  in 
his  stead.  It  was  falling  into  the  net  spread  for  him, 
and  spread  by  cunning  fowlers,  for,  as  Fosbrooke 
remarks,  in  his  History  of  Berkeley,  "  Ladies  and 
gentlewomen  were  great  practisers  in  the  rebellion 
against  Edward  II." 

In  September  of  this  year,  1325,  the  king  accom- 
panied the  prince  to  Dover,  and  on  the  progress,  and 
especially  before  parting  with  him  by  the  seaside,  he 
laid  down  rules  for  his  conduct,  and  particularly  im- 
pressed on  the  boy  the  misery  into  which  he  would 
plunge,  were  he  to  be  married,  by  any  intrigue  of  his 
mother,  and  against  his  father's  sanction.    The  prince 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  131 

answered  with  good- will  and  simplicity,  that  "he 
would  not  transgress  nor  disobey  any  of  his  father's 
injunctions  in  any  point,  or  for  any  one."  To  new 
counsel  and  new  warnings  given  by  the  perplexed 
father,  that  the  young  prince  should  neither  contract 
marriage,  nor  suffer  it  to  be  contracted  for  him  by 
others,  without  the  king's  knowledge  and  consent, 
the  boy,  probably  even  more  perplexed  than  his 
father,  replied  "that  it  should  be  his  pleasure  to 
obey  the  king's  commandments,  as  far  as  he  could, 
all  the  days  of  his  life."  Edward  again  impressed  the 
prince  with  the  necessity  to  remember  that  he  should 
not  only  never  marry  without  his  consent,  but  that, 
if  such  a  fatal  course  was  laid  open  to  him,  he  should 
at  once  seek  for  his  advice.  The  idea  of  such  a  mar- 
riage was  abhorrent  to  him.  "No  other  thing  that 
you  could  do,"  said  the  king,  "would  occasion 
greater  injury  or  pain  of  heart  to  us." 

Edward  did  not  fail  also  to  warn  his  son,  although 
he  was  formally  put  in  possession  of  the  king's  duchy 
of  Aquitaine,  not  to  make  any  alterations,  injunctions, 
or  ordinances  without  his  father's  advice  and  instruc- 
tions. To  this  warning,  the  prince  replied  in  the 
spirit  of  the  dear  and  well-beloved  son  such  as  he 
had  been  hitherto  to  his  father.  And  thus  Edward 
parted  from  the  boy  whom  he  never  beheld  again. 
His  own  after-expression  that  the  prince  was  of  "  too 
tender  an  age  to  guide  and  govern  himself,  and  there- 
fore ought  to  be  under  paternal  care,"  absolves  from 
guilt  the  really  most  innocent  of  usurpers. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  carried  with  him  2,400  florins 
of  50^.  each  to  defray  his  expenses.  They  appear 
not  to  have  sufficed,  even  with  his  mother's  allow- 


132        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ance,  to  accomplish  the  ends  which  that  mother  had 
in  view.  It  must  have  been  to  further  such  accom- 
plishment, that  after  the  arrival  of  the  prince  in  Paris, 
toward  the  end  of  September,  his  tutor  De  Bury,  or 
Aungerville,  followed  him  with  a  large  sum  of  money, 
which  King  Edward  must  have  considered  as  felo- 
niously carried  off,  for  as  soon  as  the  flight  of  the 
prince's  tutor  was  discovered,  the  king's  lieutenant, 
with  twenty-four  lances,  was  despatched  after  him  to 
Paris.  The  search  was  hot  after  the  alleged  delin- 
quent, but  he  was  well  protected,  and  during  a  whole 
week  of  the  pursuit  he  was  quietly  ensconced  in  the 
belfry  of  the  convent  of  the  Brother  Minors,  reading 
his  dearly  beloved  books,  and  little  troubled  by  the 
turmoil  made  about  him,  below. 

On  the  24th  of  September,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
performed  the  long-delayed  service  of  homage  at  the 
castle  in  the  wood  of  Vincennes.  The  solemnity 
was  followed  by  a  rare  Michaelmas  dinner  given  by 
the  queen,  as  if  she  rejoiced  to  see  a  Prince  of  Wales 
at  the  feet  of  a  King  of  France.  For  this  commem- 
orative banquet,  Charles  the  Fair  sent  four  does  to 
his  sister's  larder,  and  when  the  intelligence  reached 
Westminster,  Edward  II.  hoped  that  the  worst  was 
over,  and  that  the  queen  and  the  prince  would  now 
return  to  England. 

Isabelle  did  not  see  that  the  convenient  period  for 
such  return  had  yet  arrived.  Two  whole  months 
she  spent  in  excursions  and  visits  to  various  parts  of 
France ;  and  on  her  again  reaching  Paris,  made 
various  pretexts  for  not  setting  out  for  England 
with  the  prince.  The  English  commissioners  whom 
Edward  had  placed  about  her,  she  treated  with  con- 


.     EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  133 

tempt ;  and  for  a  whole  year  there  was  a  cry  of 
anguish  from  the  king  at  the  loss  of  his  son,  and 
of  indignation  and  remonstrance  at  the  conduct  of 
his  wife.  He  had  but  one  friend  near  the  prince's 
person,  Stapleton,  Bishop  of  Exeter;  and  he  saw 
himself  exposed  to  such  peril  from  the  enemies  of 
the  king,  surrounding  the  prince  and  his  mother,  that 
he  hurriedly  and  privately  withdrew,  and,  on  reaching 
England,  increased  the  terrors  of  Edward,  by  reveal- 
ing to  him  the  treasonable  intrigues  then  in  progress 
—  to  which  his  innocent  son  was  unconsciously  lending 
power. 

Then  commenced  those  appeals,  now  frantic,  now 
touching,  all  more  or  less  pitiful  —  in  the  old  accep- 
tation of  the  word  —  and  which  did  not  cease  till  a 
terrible  certainty  had  alike  crushed  hope  and  suspi- 
cion. These  appeals  were  addressed,  alternately, 
sometimes  to  the  queen's  brother,  more  frequently  to 
the  queen,  and  very  frequently  and  earnestly  to  young 
Edward  himself.  On  the  day,  December  i,  1325, 
on  which  the  king  had  written  from  Westminster  to 
Isabelle  and  her  brother,  he  wrote  also  to  the  prince, 
reminding  him  of  the  promises  of  love  and  obedience 
by  which  he  had  bound  himself  before  parting  from 
his  father  at  Dover  —  and  adding,  "  Since  your  hom- 
age has  been  received  by  our  dearest  brother  the 
King  of  France,  you  must  be  pleased  to  take  your 
leave  of  him,  and  return  to  us  with  all  speed,  in  com- 
pany with  your  mother,  if  so  be  that  she  will  come 
quickly;  and  if  she  will  not  come,  then  come  you, 
without  further  delay,  for  we  have  great  desire  to 
see  you  and  to  speak  with  you ;  therefore,  stay  not  for 
your  mother,  nor  for  any  one  else,  on  our  blessing." 


134       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  .WALES 

The  replies  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  his  father's 
letters  have  not  been  preserved,  or  have  not  been 
discovered,  but  their  sense  is  to  be  collected  from 
the  epistles  again  despatched  by  the  king.  From 
these,  which  are  printed  in  Halliwell's  "Letters  of 
the  Kings  of  England,"  it  appears  that  the  prince 
acknowledged  the  force  of  the  pledges  by  which  he 
was  bound,  but  pleaded  that  his  inability  to  return 
was  because  of  his  mother.  This,  says  the  king,  in 
a  letter  written  from  Lichfield,  on  the  i8th  of 
March,  1326,  "causes  us  great  uneasiness  of  heart 
that  you  cannot  be  allowed  by  her  to  do  that  which 
is  your  natural  duty,  and  which  not  doing  will  lead  to 
much  mischief."  '  The  father  subsequently  alludes 
to  the  possibility  that  the  prince  was  not  under  so 
much  restraint  as  his  letters  affirmed  him  to  be,  and 
says  impressively  that,  if  he  has  done  his  utmost  to 
obey  his  king  and  father,  he  has  "  done  wisely  and 
well,  and  according  to  your  duty,  so  as  to  have  grace 
of  God,  of  us,  and  of  all  men ;  and  if  not,  then  you 
cannot  avoid  the  wrath  of  God,  the  reproach  of  men, 
and  our  great  indignation."     King  Edward's  utmost 

*  Such,  at  least,  is  the  sense  given  by  Mr.  Halliwell,  but  the  origi- 
nal, which  is,  indeed,  imperfect,  wanting  a  word  or  two,  would  seem 
to  imply  that  the  prince  was  moved  by  a  tender  feeling  toward  his 
mother.  "  As  for  what  you  say  to  us,  that  it  seems  to  you  impossi- 
ble to  speedily  repair  to  our  presence,  as  we  commanded,  because  of 
your  mother,  who  suffers,  as  you  inform  us,  from  sickness  of  heart, 
and  that  you  cannot  leave  her  as  long  as  she  is  in  such  a  condition, 
nature  and  duty  commanding  you.  .  .  ."  In  the  original  thus :  "  Et 
quant  a  cesque  vous  nous  maundez  q'il  vous  semble  que  vous  ne 
pouez  si  toust  venir  par  devers  nous  come  vous  avons  maundez,  par 
cause  que  vestra  m^re  q'est  suque  vous  dites,  a  tris  grant  mesaise  de 
cuer,  e  que  vous  ne  la  purriez  lesser  taunt  come  ele  est  en  tiel  point, 
pur  natura  e  faire  vestre  dever."  —  Rymer,  ^' Act.  Foed."  vol.  iv. 
p.  196. 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  135 

wrath  was  excited,  however,  by  the  course  adopted 
by  Isabelle,  who  had  declared  to  her  brother,  the 
French  sovereign,  that  she  dared  not  return  to  Eng- 
land, for  fear  of  peril  to  her  life,  at  the  hands  of  the 
king's  favourite,  Hugh  Le  Despenser.  "By  God!" 
writes  Edward  to  Charles  the  Fair,  "  if  either  Hugh 
or  any  living  man  in  our  dominions  sought  to  do  her 
ill,  and  it  came  to  our  knowledge,  we  would  chastise 
him  in  a  manner  that  should  be  an  example  to  all 
others."  Edward  vouches  for  the  demeanour  of 
Hugh  as  being  exactly  what  it  ought  to  be  "in  all 
points  to  so  very  dear  a  lady."  This  very  dear  lady, 
while  professing  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  King  of 
France  that  her  fear  for  her  life  kept  her  from 
approaching  a  court  where  Hugh  Le  Despenser 
triumphed,  was  writing  friendly  epistles  to  Hugh 
himself,  "loving  letters,"  exclaims  her  husband, 
"which  he  has  shown  to  us."  Edward  pointed  out 
to  his  son  the  difference  between  two  such  men  as  the 
Despenser,  whom  he  loved  for  his  service  and  fidelity, 
and  the  Mortimer,  in  whose  society  Isabelle  kept  the 
young  prince.  "The  Mortimer,  our  traitor  and 
mortal  foe,  proved,  attainted,  and  adjudged  —  him 
she  accompanies  in  the  house  and  abroad,  despite  of 
us,  of  our  crown,  and  the  right  ordering  of  the  realm. 
.  .  .  And  worse  than  this  she  has  done,  if  worse 
than  this  can  be,  in  allowing  you  to  consort  with  our 
said  enemy,  making  him  your  counsellor,  and  you 
openly  to  herd  and  associate  with  him,  in  the  sight 
of  all  the  world,  doing  so  great  villainy,  and  dis- 
honour, both  to  yourself  and  us."  Thereupon  come 
mingled  prayer  and  injunction  to  the  prince  to  return 
home.     "We  are  not  pleased  with  you,"  writes  the 


136       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

father,  "and  neither  for  your  mother,  nor  for  any 
other,  ought  you  to  displease  us.  We  charge  you, 
by  the  faith,  love,  and  allegiance  that  you  owe  us, 
and  on  our  blessing,  that  you  come  to  us,  without 
opposition,  delay,  or  any  further  excuse,  for  your 
mother  has  written  to  us  that,  if  you  wish  to  return 
to  us  she  will  not  prevent  it,  and  we  do  not  under- 
stand that  your  uncle  the  king  detains  you  against 
the  form  of  your  safe-conduct." 

This  was  written  in  March,  1326,  about  which 
time  the  queen's  agent,  Orleton,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
had  carried  his  agency  to  such  a  successful  point 
that  the  barons,  confederated  in  England  against  the 
king,  sent  a  deputation  to  Isabelle,  with  the  assur- 
ance, that  "if  she  could  raise  a  thousand  men,  and 
would  come  with  the  prince  to  England,  at  the  head 
of  that  force,  they  would  place  the  prince  on  the 
throne,  to  govern  under  her  guidance."  '  It  is  not 
astonishing  that  the  king,  who  knew  of  confederacies 
against  him,  although  he  may  have  been  unacquainted 
with  the  extreme  objects  contemplated,  was  more 
anxious  than  ever  to  secure  the  safe  return  of  his 
son.  To  the  mother,  as  to  her  brother,  he  had 
ceased  to  make  appeals.  To  the  former  he  had  rep- 
resented the  dishonour  she  was  bringing  on  herself, 
her  child,  and  husband  ;  he  had  promised  her  that 
on  the  matter  of  income  she  should  be  generously 
treated,  if  she  would  only  bring  with  her  that  dear 
son,  Edward,  whom  he  longed  to  see,  and  with  whom 
he  as  dearly  longed  to  speak.  To  Charles,  he  had 
appealed,  begging  of  him  not  to  believe  ("  saving  his 
reverence  ")  half  that  Isabelle  might  say  against  him ; 

*  De  la  Moor. 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  i37 

imploring  the  king  to  compel  her  to  return  and  live 
with  him  as  became  a  lady  with  such  a  lord,  —  and 
affording  some  justification  for  the  assertion  of  Isa- 
belle  that  she  even  dreaded  the  effects  of  her  hus- 
band's temper,  by  reminding  Charles,  that  if  he 
wished  her  well,  he  "  would  chastise  her  for  this  mis- 
conduct, and  make  her  demean  herself  as  she  ought, 
for  the  honour  of  all  those  to  whom  she  belongs." 
The  last  appeal  of  all  was  made  to  his  young  son, 
Edward.  It  comprises  all  the  prayers,  entreaties, 
and  monitions  contained  in  former  letters,  concluding 
with  the  words  : 

"  Edward,  fair  son,  you  are  of  tender  age :  take 
our  commandments  tenderly  to  heart,  and  so  rule 
your  conduct  with  humility  as  you  would  escape  our 
reproach,  our  grief,  and  indignation,  to  advance  your 
own  interests  and  honour.  And  follow  no  advice 
contrary  to  the  will  of  your  father ;  knowing  this, 
that  if  we  find  you  hereafter  disobedient  to  our  will, 
we  will  take  care  that  you  shall  feel  it  to  the  last  day 
of  your  life,  and  that  other  sons  shall  learn  from 
your  example  not  to  disobey  their  lord  and  father."' 

The  prince,  however,  was  unable  to  obey  his 
father's  commands.  Outwardly  there  was  no  ap- 
parent constraint  upon  him.  He  was  even  permitted 
to  visit  Guienne,  while  the  queen  was  in  Paris,  or 
engaged  in  visiting  shrines  and  relics.  But  his 
absence  was  brief,  and  no  doubt  there  was  a  watch- 

'  "  Entendant  certeinement  que  si  nous  vous  troessons  desors 
contrair  ou  desobeissant  (par  qi  conseil  que  le  soit)  a  nos  volontez, 
nous  ordonnerons  par  telle  manlere,  que  vous  le  sentirez  a  tous  les 
jours  de  vostre  vie  ;  e  que  touz  autres  Fittz,  par  tant  en  prenderont 
ensaumple,  de  desobeer  a  leur  seignurs  et  pieres."  —  Rytn.^  torn.  iv. 

p.   212. 


138       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ful  eye  upon  him,  as  constraining  as  bonds  them- 
selves. The  king  tried  persuasion  and  menace  in 
vain ;  at  last,  to  recover  his  son,  Edward  scattered 
gold  profusely.  By  that  powerful  aid,  he  is  said  to 
have  bought  the  reproof  administered  by  the  Pope 
to  the  King  of  France  for  detaining  the  prince  and 
his  mother.  By  the  same  help,  the  King  of  France 
was  brought  to  the  conclusion  that  the  reproof  could 
not  be  withstood,  —  and  the  prince,  queen,  Roger  de 
Mortimer,  and  that  John  de  Cromwell  who  had  been 
so  inefficient  a  groom  of  the  chambers  when  Isabelle 
was  ill  in  the  Tower,  were  compelled  to  leave  France. 
For  the  furtherance  of  her  son's  cause,  however,  she 
took  with  her  ;£^28,ooo  borrowed  from  Italian  mer- 
chants, the  Bardi,  and  repaid  out  of  King  Edward's 
treasury  after  his  murder.  Charles  of  France  had, 
moreover,  secretly  provided  for  the  prince  and  his 
companions  an  asylum  in  Hainault,  and  thither  the 
pretended  fugitives  bent  their  way.  They  departed 
from  Paris  in  the  month  of  July,  at  which  time 'every 
effort  had  been  made  to  impress  on  the  mind  of  the 
prince  that  his  mother  was  the  worst  used  of  women, 
and  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  father  conspiring  to 
deprive  him  of  his  inheritance.  In  Hainault,  the 
party  was  received  by  the  sovereign  count  as  cor- 
dially as  the  friends  of  the  King  of  France  could  be ; 
and  there  were  carried  out  all  the  preparations  which 
were  to  bring  about  the  ends  of  which  King  Edward 
stood  in  the  utmost  terror,  —  the  triumph  of  his  wife 
and  the  marriage  of  his  son. 

From  this  period  to  the  moment  when  the  young 
prince  was  proclaimed  king,  he  only  appears  occa- 
sionally on  the  scene,  playing  the  part  for  which  he 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  139 

had  been  dexterously  cast  by  others.  There  was  a 
predetermination  on  the  side  of  the  queen  and  Morti- 
mer to  marry  Prince  Edward,  then  in  his  fifteenth 
year,  to  Philippa,  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Hainault, 
who  was  his  junior  by  some  months.  The  count  had 
three  other  daughters,  Margaret,  Joanna,  and  Isa- 
bel ;  but  Philippa  was  evidently  put  forward  —  if 
Froissart's  description  of  the  wooing  of  this  boy  and 
girl  be  the  true  one  —  to  win  the  young  heir.  She 
was  the  most  demonstrative  of  attention  to  him, 
insinuated  herself  into  his  society  when  her  sisters 
kept  aloof,  and  so  charmed  him  by  her  conversation 
that  the  young  prince  soon  grew,  naturally  enough, 
to  care  more  for  sitting  by  and  talking  with  her  than 
with  any  of  her  sisters.  For  one  fortnight  the  gentle 
and  graceful  Edward  was  thus  in  the  company  of  the 
tall  and  buxom  young  lady,  —  ruddy  as  the  sun-kissed 
cheek  of  an  apple,  of  whom,  in  the  following  year,  he 
became  the  husband. 

The  above  brief  period  of  love-making  and  treach- 
erous plotting  having  elapsed,  the  prince  embarked, 
the  nominal  head  of  that  expedition  which  landed 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Orwell  on  the  25  th  of  Septem- 
ber, and  which,  through  so  much  crime,  was  to  lead 
to  such  imperishable  glory.  The  invaders  were  met, 
not  only  by  friends  who  believed  they  were  aiding  a 
young  wife  to  reconciliation  with  her  husband,  and 
a  young  prince  to  a  home  where  domestic  felicity 
was  to  be  established,  but  by  partisans  who  had  other 
ends  in  view ;  and  also  by  the  very  men  —  nobles, 
priests,  soldiers,  and  civilians  —  commissioned  by 
Edward  to  do  their  utmost  to  resist  this  army  of 
invasion. 


I40       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

The  king  was  not  paralysed :  his  decrees  and 
letters  show  him  to  have  been  frantically  active, 
although  varying  in  his  humours,  and  perplexed  even 
immediately  after  resolution.  There  is,  however,  in 
all  his  decrees  at  this  time  one  circumstance  demon- 
strating his  own  gentleness  of  nature.  When  de- 
nouncing his  kingly  wrath  against  the  traitorous 
invaders,  he  invariably  makes  exception  in  favour  of 
the  persons  of  the  prince  his  son,  and  the  queen  his 
wife. 

The  exception  did  not  avail  him,  nor  touch  the 
heart  of  the  beautiful  fiend  who  was  dragging  that 
son  forward  to  destroy  his  father.  She  affected, 
indeed,  to  believe  that  to  return  to  the  society  of  the 
king,  as  he  invited  her  and  the  prince  to  do,  would 
only  be  followed  by  peril  to  her  life.  And  accord- 
ingly she  hurried  onward,  announcing  that  she  and 
her  son  came  only  to  free  the  country  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  Despensers,  which  weighed  heavily  on 
every  class,  and  which  stood  in  the  way  of  the  king 
being  reconciled  with  his  son  and  herself. 

As  the  invaders  advanced,  the  king  fled,  and  the 
queen  followed  in  eager  pursuit.  The  queen  and 
prince  occasionally  rested  by  the  way,  and,  on  one 
of  these  occasions,  they  found  themselves  at  Oxford, 
where  Isabelle  ordered  Adam  de  Orleton,  Bishop  of 
Hereford,  to  preach  a  sermon  to  the  university,  her- 
self and  Prince  Edward  being  present.  Historians 
are  not  agreed  as  to  the  text.  Some  say  that  the 
bishop  selected  the  words  from  the  nineteenth  verse 
of  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Kings, 
—  "My  head,  my  head  acheth."  As  these  words 
are  incorrectly  quoted,  probably  Lingard  is  right  in 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  141 

Stating  that  the  bishop  selected  for  his  text  that  pas- 
sage in  Genesis,  —  **  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee 
and  the  woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed. 
She  shall  bruise  thy  head."  These  words  were 
made  applicable  to  the  queen  and  the  Despensers; 
and  Lingard  adds  "that  many  thought  that  they 
discovered  in  the  sermon  "  —  what,  let  us  hope,  was 
not  understood  by  the  prince  —  **  dark  and  prophetic 
allusions  to  the  fate  which  afterward  befel  the  unfor- 
tunate Edward."  This  dark  and  prophetic  allusion 
was  probably  in  the  concluding  observation,  which 
the  young  prince  himself  could  hardly  fail  to  compre- 
hend, and  in  which  he  was  told,  of  his  father,  "  that 
when  the  head  of  a  kingdom  becometh  sick  and  dis- 
eased, it  must  of  necessity  be  taken  off  without  use- 
less attempts  to  administer  any  other  remedy."  The 
words  probably  startled  the  young  listener;  for,  as 
the  denouement  of  the  drama  drew  near,  his  coopera- 
tion in  it  was  only  secured  by  assuring  him  that  his 
father  was  anxious  to  resign  his  crown,  and  to  hail 
his  successor  in  his  son. 

London  declared  for  this  son ;  and  Bristol  would 
not  protect  the  king's  favourites.  It  was  there  the 
Despensers  were  captured ;  and  in  presence  of  the 
prince,  the  older  favourite  was  condemned  to  a  cruel 
death,  which  he  suffered,  it  is  said,  in  presence  of 
the  queen !  The  younger  Despenser  suffered  an 
equally  cruel  death  on  the  march  of  Isabella  and  the 
prince  to  London.  King  Edward  made  a  vain  at- 
tempt to  escape,  and  it  was  during  his  absence  that 
he  was  tauntingly  summoned  to  reappear  and  assume 
the  government.  The  kingdom  being  left  without  a 
ruler,  young  Edward,   "Duke  of  Aquitaine,"   as  he 


142        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  called,  was  appointed  guardian  of  the  kingdom, 
in  the  name  and  by  the  right  of  his  father.  "  A  Par- 
liament was  summoned  to  meet  at  Westminster, 
December  1 5th,  in  which  Isabelle,  queen  consort,  and 
Edward,  son  of  the  king,  the  guardian  of  the  realm, 
and  the  lords  may  treat  together."  When  the  king 
was  captured,  the  Parliament  was  summoned  to  meet 
on  the  7th  of  January,  1327,  "to  treat  with  the  king 
himself,  if  he  were  present,  or  else  with  the  queen 
consort,  and  the  king's  son,  guardian  of  the  realm." 
This  summons  was  tested  by  Edward,  as  king,  who 
was  thus  made  to  convoke  a  Parliament  which  only 
met  to  pronounce  his  deposition  and  the  accession  of 
the  prince  his  son,  —  a  son,  says  Barnes,  who  was 
made  to  believe  "  that  his  father  had  freely  and  will- 
ingly resigned  the  government ; "  and  besides,  says 
the  historian,  on  behalf  of  the  innocent  prince,  "  we 
are  to  consider  the  tenderness  of  his  age,  he  being 
not  then  fourteen  years  old ;  whereby  he  might  very 
easily  be  imposed  upon  by  the  treacherous  subtlety 
of  Mortimer  and  his  accomplices,  who  were  always 
about  him." 

The  proclamation  that  was  issued  on  this  occasion 
told  the  people  that  the  old  king  had  willingly,  and  of 
his  own  spontaneous  movement,  given  up  the  crown 
to  his  son !  At  the  subsequent  coronation,  medals 
were  flung  among  the  crowd,  on  the  pile  of  which 
was  seen  the  young  prince,  crowned,  his  sceptre  lying 
on  a  heap  of  hearts,  and  the  inscription,  "  He  gives 
laws  to  a  willing  people."  On  the  reverse,  was  a 
hand  receiving  a  crown  which  was  falling  from 
heaven,  and  the  inscription  here  was,  "He  does  not 
snatch  it — he  receives  it."     In  such  way  did  con- 


EDWARD  OF  WINDSOR  143 

temporary  statesmen  and  artists  illustrate  the  history 
of  their  times. 

A  reign  of  half  a  hundred  years  followed  this  usur- 
pation. During  that  period,  Edward  avenged  his 
father  by  slaying  his  father's  murderers,  and  keeping 
his  mother  in  a  sort  of  captivity  at  Castle  Rising,  — 

"  Where  the  queen  looked  looks  of  passion, 
From  behind  her  prison  bars." 

He  triumphed  over  his  enemies  both  in  France  and 
Scotland  ;  victor  by  sea  as  well  as  conqueror  by  land ; 
and  bringing  home  kings  as  his  prisoners  and  guests. 
With  glory  abroad  he  possessed  happiness  at  home. 
Feared  beyond  the  limits  of  the  kingdom,  he  main- 
tained within  it  a  chivalrous  and  feudal  splendour 
such  as  had  never  hitherto  been  obtained.  His  proud 
spirit  successfully  withstood  the  Pope ;  but  it  was  not 
equally  successful  in  withstanding  the  people,  who 
resolutely  refused  to  be  taxed  without  the  consent  of 
the  Commons  in  Parliament.  After  years  of  conquest, 
glory,  and  brilliant  progress,  Edward  of  Windsor  en- 
countered the  destiny  of  most  men  of  his  especial 
vocation,  —  defeat  and  humiliation.  Of  him,  his 
career,  and  his  end,  the  lines  of  Shakespeare  are 
strikingly  illustrative,  where  he  says  : 

"  Within  the  hollow  crown 
That  rounds  the  mortal  temples  of  a  king, 
Keeps  death  his  court ;  and  there  the  antic  sits, 
Scoffing  his  state,  and  grinning  at  his  pomp, 
Allowing  him  a  little  breath,  a  scene 
To  monarchise,  be  feared,  and  kill  with  looks. 


144       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Infusing  in  him  self  and  vain  conceits,  — 

As  if  this  flesh  which  walls  about  our  life 

Were  brass  impregnable.     And  humoured  thus, — 

Comes  at  the  last,  and  with  a  little  pin 

Bores  through  his  castle-wall,  —  and  farewell  king ! " 

It  was  so  with  Edward,  who  was  indebted  for  much 
of  his  glory  to  the  valour  and  the  virtue  of  that  son 
whose  story  and  character  are  so  familiar  to  English 
minds,  that  a  sketch  of  each  may  be  more  appropriate 
here  than  a  lengthened  detail. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

EDWARD   OF   WOODSTOCK,    THE   BLACK   PRINCE 
Bom  1330.    Died  1376 

The  third,  and  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Princes 
of  Wales,  was  born  at  Woodstock,  at  ten  o'clock  in 
the  morning  of  the  15  th  of  June,  1330.  The  young 
father,  who  was  then  only  in  the  eighteenth  year  of 
his  age,  manifested  his  paternal  delight  by  conferring 
money  and  lands  on  the  announcer  of  the  intelligence 
to  him,  and  by  settling  an  annuity  of  ;^ioo  on  the 
prince's  nurse,  Joan  of  Oxford,  and  a  tenth  of  that 
number  of  marks  on  his  Yorkshire  "  rocker,"  Maud 
of  Plumpton. 

Old  Joshua  Barnes,  of  Emmanuel  College,  who 
wrote  the  life  of  the  father  of  this  prince  nearly  two 
centuries  ago,  appears  to  have  consulted  as  many 
chronicles  as  he  wrote  lines  on  the  birth  of  this  illus- 
trious baby,  and  the  conduct  of  his  admirable  mother. 
According  to  this  united  testimony,  the  infant  was 
"  very  fair,  lusty,  and  well-formed.  Great  hopes  were 
immediately  conceived  of  the  royal  babe,"  says  the 
old  bachelor  of  divinity,  "  by  all  that  beheld  the  beauty 
of  his  shape,  the  largeness  of  his  size,  and  the  firm 
contexture  of  his  body."  Queen  Philippa  nursed  the 
stout  boy  herself  —  as,  indeed,  she  did  all  her  children 
—  and  "for  all  that,"  says  the  erudite  Joshua,  "her 

145 


146       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

beauty  and  flower  of  youth  was  nothing  impeded 
thereby ; "  and  he  impresses  this  fact  on  the  "  deli- 
cate madams  "  of  his  time,  who  thought  the  tender 
Philippa's  example  beneath  their  care  to  follow. 
.  The  boy  took  kindly  of  the  maternal  bounty,  and 
flourished  thereon  abundantly.  When  the  brother  of 
the  first  Prince  of  Wales,  Thomas  of  Brotherton, 
refused  to  take  similar  nutrition  from  his  mother, 
Marguerite  of  France,  or  from  any  French  nurse 
engaged  to  supply  the  queen's  place  in  this  respect ; 
and  when  the  obstreperous  baby  was  only  to  be 
tranquillised  and  satisfied  by  placing  him  on  a  fair 
English  bosom,  pleasant  jokes  were  made  by  his  sire, 
as  to  the  future  warlike  consequences  of  this  mani- 
festation of  sympathy  and  antipathy.  The  omens 
thus  conjectured  were  never  realised ;  but  Philippa 
was  a  queen  fit  to  be  truly  the  mother  of  men ;  and 
at  the  fountain  from  which  the  future  hero  of  Cressy 
and  Poictiers  drew  his  strength,  subsequently  quaffed 
and  waxed  strong,  or  grew  up  in  beauty  and  virtue, 
that  "  long  lad  Lionel,"  of  Antwerp,  who  stood  seven 
feet  two  out  of  his  armour  ;  John  of  Gaunt,  sinewy  as 
a  giant ;  his  next  brother,  Edmund  of  Langley,  Duke 
of  York  ;  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  Duke  of  Gloucester ; 
four  other  sons,  whom  death  claimed  early;  and 
then  of  daughters,  the  fair  Elizabeth,  the  tender 
Joanna,  Blanche  of  the  violet  eyes,  and  Margaret,  the 
pearl  of  princesses. 

When  Philippa  became  mother  of  the  eldest  prince 
of  this  family,  a  fairer  mother  and  a  more  beautiful 
child  were  not  to  be  found  in  Christendom.  Artists 
acknowledged  the  divine  quality  of  that  beauty  by 
taking  matronly  young  queen  and  infant  prince  as 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  147 

models  for  their  groups  of  the  Madonna  and  her  Son. 
And  art  had  some  justification  for  this  apparent  flat- 
tery, seeing,  as  Barnes  truly  puts  it,  that  "now,  as 
if  all  things  conspired  to  make  this  blessing  more 
acceptable  to  the  nation,  a  new  face  of  things  began 
from  this  time  to  appear ;  and  all  public  affairs  hap- 
pily succeeded  henceforward  both  to  the  king  and 
his  people." 

The  first  ten  years  of  the  life  of  Edward  of  Wood- 
stock present  an  epitome  of  all  that  followed.  In  his 
third  year  he  was  created  Earl  of  Chester,  with  ample 
means  to  enable  him  to  support  the  dignity.  Four 
years  later,  the  young  prince  was  distinguished  by  a 
higher  creation,  —  that  of  Duke  of  Cornwall.  On  this 
latter  occasion,  he  was  invested  with  the  sword  only ; 
and  he  was  the  first  duke  created  in  England. 
Youthful  duke  as  he  was,  and  as  yet  no  knight 
himself,  he  celebrated  the  creation  of  his  dignity  by 
admitting  twenty  new  candidates  to  the  order  of  chiv- 
alry. Greater  powers  than  these  were  invested,  or 
seemingly  invested  in  him.  During  the  absence 
of  his  father  in  Flanders,  the  boy  twice  presided  over 
Parliaments  held  at  Northampton  and  Westminster, 
during  two  successive  years,  1338  and  1339.  He 
occupied  the  throne  at  these  times  as  his  father's 
representative ;  and,  probably  without  comprehending 
much  about  the  matter,  saw  taxes  imposed  in  wool  or 
in  cash,  and  gave  his  sanction  to  the  levying  of  those 
aids  as  a  matter  of  course. 

It  is  just  possible  that  he  was  not  altogether 
unconscious,  mere  boy  as  he  was,  of  the  importance 
and  nature  of  these  proceedings ;  for  since  the  time 
he  was  able  to  read  he  had  been  confided  to  the  care 


148       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  his  mother's  old  almoner,  who  had  undertaken  the 
charge  of  tutor  to  the  heir  to  the  throne.  This 
responsible  office  was  undertaken  by  Dr.  Walter 
Burley,  of  Burleigh,  of  Merton  College,  Oxford ; 
according  to  the  not  useless  fashion  of  that  time,  the 
doctor,  while  especially  instructing  one  illustrious 
individual,  taught  also  a  compact  little  class  of  pupils. 
These  latter  consisted  of  sons  of  noblemen,  and  there- 
with a  boy,  kinsman  of  the  tutor's,  one  Simon  Bur- 
leigh, who  subsequently  became  distinguished  and 
unfortunate.  The  tutor  was  himself  a  man  of  erudi- 
tion, and  his  good  offices  and  instruction  were  not 
lost  upon  the  prince.  Had  the  latter  been  idle  or 
impertinent,  he  was  too  sacred,  of  course,  for  chas- 
tisement, however  thoroughly  he  may  have  deserved 
it ;  but  then  there  were  his  fellow  pupils,  any  one  of 
whom  the  doctor  might,  and  did,  whip  as  often  as  the 
august  class-fellow  merited  the  infliction. 

If  the  princely  boy  was  not  unlearned,  neither  was 
he  untra veiled,  having  visited  Antwerp  when  his  sire 
held  court  there  in  1 340 ;  and  by  his  grace,  good 
looks,  and  precocious  gallantry,  made  an  impression 
on  all  juvenile  hearts  of  Flemish  damsels  who  were  in 
the  least  degree  susceptible  of  being  impressed  —  as 
the  hearts  of  young  lords  and  ladies  in  those  days 
were  willing  or  ordered  to  be,  at  an  exceedingly  early 
period. 

In  little  tournaments,  too,  he  gave  token  of  stout- 
heartedness which  well  promised  for  the  future  man  ; 
and,  at  ten  years  old,  could  doubtless  have  kept  the 
Tower  of  London  itself  —  as,  indeed,  he  was  once  left 
to  do  —  albeit  against  no  foe.  This  incident  occurred 
after  his  return  from  Antwerp,  where  he  resided  in 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  149 

the  metropolitan  fortress  with  his  sister  Elizabeth,  his 
brother  William,  and  a  household  and  guard  to  corre- 
spond. The  king  and  queen,  with  long  Lionel,  then 
tWb  years  old,  and  John  of  Gaunt,  a  baby  of  great 
vivacity  and  vigour,  had  left  Flanders  without  proc- 
lamation of  their  coming,  and  ascending  the  Thames 
during  a  dark  December  day,  cast  anchor  before  th£ 
Tower  long  before  they  were  either  expected  or  wel- 
come. De  la  Beche,  the  constable  or  lieutenant  of 
the  palace-fortress,  was  absent  in  London,  being 
intent  upon  wooing  a  maiden  beyond  Cheapside. 
With  such  an  example  before  them,  the  men-at-arms 
followed  the  bent  of  their  inclinations  also,  and  scat- 
tered themselves  in  the  vicinity  in  pursuit  of  drink,  or 
of  those  who  would  pay  for  it ;  and  thus  the  proudest 
and  most  wrathful  of  kings  stepped  ashore,  and 
walked  unwelcomed,  ungreeted,  and  undesired  into 
the  palatial  bulwark  that  defended  his  capital.  Only 
the  royal  children  and  their  ordinary  household  were 
there  to  offer  love  or  respect  to  the  newcomers  ;  and 
it  would  have  gone  hard  with  the  philandering  lieu- 
tenant on  his  return,  had  it  not  been  for  Queen  Phi- 
lippa,  whose  tender  heart  had  sympathy  for  loving 
couples,  and  whose  intercession  saved  the  constable's 
life,  if  not  his  office.  The  chief  offender  pardoned, 
the  punishment  of  the  tippling  guards,  as  they 
dropped  in  from  drinking,  was  not  to  be  thought  of ; 
and  nothing  worse  occurred  than  a  general  repri- 
mand all  round. 

Thus  dignity,  duty,  glory,  study,  court-life,  and 
perils  marked  the  path  of  the  prince  during  the  first 
ten  years  of  his  life.  The  time  soon  after  commenced 
when  each  succeeding  period  of  ten  years  was  the 


150       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Stage  or  station  of  a  new  path  of  glory  unparallelled. 
And  never  yet  did  other  prince  live  who  so  well 
merited  the  praise  due  to  this  Edward  for  acquiring 
his  glory  only  by  pursuing  his  duty,  trusting  nothing 
to  chance,  exercising  prudence,  providing  for  all  con- 
tingencies, calming  rather  than  arousing  his  valiant 
and  eager  heart ;  confidently  leaving  the  issue  to 
God,  and  giving  him  the  praise  when  the  duty  was 
accomplished  and  the  glory  achieved. 

Young  Edward  of  Woodstock  was  created  Prince 
of  Wales  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  his  age,  on  a  Mon- 
day morning  in  the  month  of  May,  on  the  twelfth 
day  of  the  month,  and  in  the  palace  at  Westminster. 
In  full  Parliament  there,  the  boy  was  invested  with 
coronet,  gold  ring,  and  silver  rod,  and  to  these  em- 
blems of  his  princely  power  were  added  grants  of 
money  and  of  lands,  of  profits  prospective,  and  of 
privileges  immediately  to  be  enjoyed,  which,  added 
to  what-  he  already  possessed,  rendered  him  a  rich 
and  powerful  prince,  albeit  so  young. 

Since  the  principality  had  reverted  to,  or  continued 
in,  the  king,  many  a  Welsh  tenant  had  been  in  arrear, 
and  many  a  rich  fee  and  fine  remained  unpaid.  All 
such  debts  and  arrears  were  at  once  made  over  to 
young  Edward  of  Woodstock,  as  also,  according  to 
the  chroniclers,  "all  victuals,  arms,  horses,  oxen, 
cows,  and  other  things  in  and  upon  all  castles  and 
lands  which  he  held  by  the  king's  grant."  In  honour 
of  the  event,  too,  a  score  of  young  noblemen  were 
made  knights  on  this  occasion ;  but  the  knighting  of 
the  prince  himself  was  deferred  till  a  less  festive  and 
a  more  solemn  occasion,  which  presented  itself  about 
two  years  subsequently.     I  must  not  omit  to  notice 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  151 

that  the  author  of  the  "Chroniques  de  Londres" 
(p.  93)  states  that  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wales  was 
conferred  upon  Edward  **  by  assent  of  all  the  nobility 
of  England.  On  the  morrow  of  Hokkeday"  (the 
anniversary  of  an  English  victory  over  the  Danes) 
"the  Parliament  was  opened  at  Westminster,  and 
there  Sir  Edward,  the  king's  son,  Duke  of  Cornwall, 
was  made  Prince  of  Wales  by  the  assent  of  all  the 
nobles  of  England "  — "  par  assent  de  touz  les 
grauntz  d'Engleterre."  I  notice  this  circumstance, 
because,  subsequently,  when  the  Parliament  assumed 
a  right  to  have  a  voice  in  the  creation  of  a  Prince  of 
Wales,  that  assembly  was  informed  that  such  right 
resided  in  the  king  only. 

Edward  of  Woodstock  was  the  first  Prince  of 
Wales  who,  while  prince,  nobly  distinguished  himself 
in  the  field  —  so  distinguished  himself,  in  fact,  that 
none  of  his  successors,  however  brave  (save  Henry 
of  Monmouth),  has  equalled  him  in  valour,  or  ap- 
proached him  in  glory.  Early  in  Hfe  he  ran  tourna- 
ments under  the  encouraging  eye  of  his  mother,  and 
gained  as  much  honour  as  is  to  be  reaped  by  hard 
hitting.  His  repute  in  this  respect  must  have  been 
considerable,  or  he  would  never  have  been  loaded 
with  such  responsibility  as  rested  on  his  young  shoul- 
ders, when  he  was  but  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  his 
age.  He  was  then  called  away  from  playing  the 
puppet  in  Parliament,  representing  his  father  on 
the  throne  there,  to  carry  arms,  and  lead  a  battaha 
in  his  father's  presence.  His  brother  Lionel,  then 
eight  years  old,  succeeded  to  the  part  of  mock-mon- 
arch, and  Edward  crossed  the  seas  to  France.  In 
that  country  the  king  was  pursuing  his  unjust  claim 


152       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  the  throne ;  and  from  this  period  till  the  first  fore- 
going of  the  claim  at  the  peace  of  Bretigny,  the  evil 
pretension  was  splendidly  supported  by  the  arm  of 
an  English  boy. 

The  first  station  of  the  glory  of  that  boy  was  on 
the  heights  above  La  Hogue,  where  in  open  field  he 
was  knighted  by  his  father,  with  several  others  little 
older  than  himself.  This  knighting  was  not  a  recom- 
pense, but  an  incentive ;  and  they  who  received  the 
honour  were  bidden  to  remember  it,  when  serious 
work  drew  near  to  hand,  and  King  Edward  was  about 
to  force  the  well-watched  ford  on  the  River  Somme. 

**  Let  him  who  loves  me  follow  me  ! "  is  said  by 
old  Samuel  Clarke,  the  logogriph,  to  have  been  the 
cry  of  Edward  when  he  dashed  into  the  stream.  He 
was  accompanied,  rather  than  followed,  by  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  acquitted  himself  well  on  the  other 
side,  without  having,  however,  much  opportunity  of 
showing  himself  brilliantly  worthy  of  the  spurs  that 
had  so  recently  been  clapped  to  his  heels.  That 
opportunity  was  afforded  this  "  proper  young  gentle- 
man "  on  the  memorable  26th  of  August,  1346,  —  the 
day  of  Cressy,  and  on  the  land  that  belonged  to  his 
grandmother  Isabelle. 

Rarely  indeed  has  it  ever  occurred  for  the  van  of 
battle  to  be  entrusted  to  one  so  young.  But  his 
father  knew  the  boy's  mettle,  and  must  have  had 
faith  in  his  prudence,  too,  confiding  to  him  the  first 
line,  but  wisely  placing  with  him  valiant  old  Chandos 
and  wary  Warwick,  as  resources  to  which  he  might 
apply,  if  he  found  himself  at  fault. 

In  such  condition,  however,  it  was  never  his  fate 
to  find  himself.     The  prince  never  suffered  a  defeat ; 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  153 

and  though  a  valiant  enemy  may  have  placed  him  in 
momentary  peril,  his  prudence  and  his  courage,  the 
combination  that  makes  up  the  true  bellica  virtus, 
never  failed  to  secure  the  victory.  To  him  may 
most  aptly  be  applied  the  words  by  which  Tully 
described  young  Pompey  and  his  career  as  a  noble 
soldier :  "  Extrema  pueritid  miles  fuit  summi  impera- 
toris,  ineunte  adolescentia  maximi  ipse  exercitus  im- 
perator."  So,  of  young  Edward,  a  boy  soldier  under 
a  noble  commander ;  and,  in  his  early  manhood,  a 
noble  commander  himself. 

And  now,  in  the  front  of  thirty  thousand  English, 
stood  this  young  Prince  of  Wales,  with  exactly  four 
times  that  number  of  foes  before  him.  In  this 
bloody  argument  the  odds  seemed  heavily  against 
him,  but  the  young  disputant  had  his  own  logical 
method ;  and,  on  going  up  for  his  degree  in  the 
university  of  military  glory,  had  no  doubt  of  ultimate 
success.  There  was  no  favour  shown  him  on  that 
memorable  day.  With  the  commonest  man  he  shared 
the  common  danger,  and  the  glory  of  the  prince  was 
reflected  on  the  entire  army. 

Against  his  line  the  Genoese  rather  felt  than  flung 
themselves.  The  first  rude  shock  was  when  D'Alen^on 
cut  his  way  through  those  inefficient  mercenaries  and 
reached  the  prince's  line,  only  to  be  driven  back 
with  death  and  ruin  to  his  own. 

Thrice  was  the  attack  repeated;  each  time  with 
renovated  squadrons,  and  each  time  made  in  vain. 
It  was  at  the  third  attempt  that  Warwick  grew  for  a 
moment  fearful  of  the  endurance  of  the  marvellous 
boy;  and  he  sent  to  the  king,  who  was  with  the 
reserve  behind  the  second  line,  for  succour.     But 


154       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  king,  entertaining  no  such  doubts  as  troubled 
Warwick,  would  not  lessen  the  boy's  glory  by  send- 
ing him  support.  He  bade  the  prince  win  all  the 
honour  of  the  day;  and  when  this  message  reached 
him  and  his  valiant  fellows,  their  weak  arms  were 
rendered  strong ;  ceasing  to  act  on  the  defensive, 
they  became  the  assailants,  and,  supported  by  the 
second  line,  went  forward  with  a  shout.  Before  that 
tide  of  war  many  a  chief  and  many  a  flaunting  banner 
went  down.  That  of  the  Marquis  of  Moravia  dis- 
appeared, and  the  rallying  sign  lost,  the  marquis 
fled.  That  of  the  old  King  of  Bohemia  sank  before 
the  impetuosity  of  the  prince,  and  since  that  day  his 
device  has  been  an  entanglement  and  perplexity  to 
antiquaries.  To  snatch  a  victory.  King  Philip  of 
France  himself  dashed  with  the  flower  of  French 
chivalry  against  the  band  of  heroes  led  by  the  Eng- 
lish prince ;  but  Philip's  banner  went  down  as  did  so 
many  which  had  preceded  it,  and  wounded  and  sick 
at  heart,  he  rode  away,  in  haste  and  scantily  accom- 
panied, from  the  field. 

On  that  field,  the  son  and  father  met,  the  latter  all 
exultant,  the  former  all  sincere  humility.  Of  honest 
pride  there  could  have  been  no  lack  in  the  heart  of 
either.  The  French  had  lost  as  many  nobles  and  men 
as  amounted  in  number  to  the  whole  army  of  England. 
On  our  side,  three  knights,  a  single  esquire,  and  a  few 
"  men  "  —  as  good  as  any  knight  or  squire  there  — 
made  up  the  tale  of  our  loss  in  killed.  Not  a  man 
fell  in  our  ranks  above  the  degree  of  a  knight.  No 
wonder  that  England  was  joyful  at  such  an  achieve- 
ment, and  that  she  gloried  in  her  prince,  even  as  his 
father  did.     Right  well  did  that  father  know  how  to 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  155 

turn  to  his  use  that  humour  in  his  people.  He  sent 
the  young  soldier  home,  the  laurels  fresh  upon  him, 
to  raise  supplies  to  enable  the  king  to  prosecute  the 
war.  The  people  gave  cheerfully  all  that  was  asked 
by  the  young  god  of  their  idolatry.  Wool  or  money, 
in  cash  or  in  kind,  they  poured  into  his  lap  the  trib- 
ute of  more  than  their  love.  And  thus  furnished,  the 
prince  repaired  to  Calais,  beleaguered  by  his  father. 
With  him  was  his  stout-hearted  mother  Philippa,  under 
whose  auspices  the  battle  of  Neville's  Cross  had  been 
recently  won ;  and  when  the  three  met  in  the  royal 
tent,  near  Calais,  there  must  have  been  a  joy  such  as 
is  known  only  by  those  who  have  not  merely  con- 
quered in  a  perilous  struggle,  but  carried  out  of  it 
much  honour  and  equal  glory. 

I  have  said  that  the  origin  of  the  ostrich  feathers, 
as  a  badge  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  has  been  a  matter 
of  perplexity  to  the  antiquaries.  Old  Randall  Holmes 
solved  the  difficulty  in  his  summary  way,  by  asserting 
that  they  were  the  blazon  on  the  war-banner  of 
the  ancient  Britons.  The  only  thing  that  in  any 
way  resembles  the  triple  feathers  in  ancient  British 
heraldry,  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  is  to  be  found 
on  the  azure  shield  of  arms  of  King  Roderick  Mawr, 
on  which  the  tails  of  that  monarch's  three  lions  are 
seen  coming  between  their  legs,  and  turning  over 
their  backs,  with  the  gentle  fall  of  the  tips,  like  the 
graceful  bend  of  the  feathers  in  the  prince's  badge. 
The  feathers  themselves,  however,  do  not  appear  in 
connection  with  our  Princes  of  Wales,  until  after 
the  battle  in  which  the  blind  King  of  Bohemia  —  too 
blind  to  read  a  manuscript,  yet  not  so  blind  but  he 
could  see  a  foe  within  the  swing  of  a  battle-axe  —  lost 


156       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

his  life.  The  crest  of  the  Bohemian  monarch  was  an 
eagle's  wing ;  as  for  the  motto  of  Ich  dieuy  it  was 
assumed  by  the  prince  to  characterise  his  humility,  in 
accordance  with  a  fashion  followed,  to  a  late  period, 
even  by  princesses  —  Elizabeth  of  York,  for  instance, 
took  that  of  "Humble  and  Reverent."  Edward  of 
Woodstock,  therefore,  did  not  adopt  either  the  badge 
or  the  legend  of  the  dead  King  of  Bohemia ;  such  is 
the  conclusion  at  which  nearly  all  persons  who  have 
examined  into  this  difficult  question  have  arrived. 
Nevertheless,  I  am  inclined  to  have  faith  in  the  old 
tradition,  as  far  as  the  badge  is  concerned.  John, 
Count  of  Luxemburg,  was  the  original  style  and  title 
of  him  who  was  elected  King  of  Bohemia,  and  fell 
so  bravely  and  unnecessarily  at  Cressy.  Now,  the 
ostrich  feather  was  a  distinction  of  Luxemburg, 
and  it  is  from  such  origin  that  the  Princes  of  Wales 
derive  the  graceful  plumes,  which  are  their  distin- 
guishing badge,  but  not  their  crest.  This  much  is 
stated  by  Sir  H.  Nicolas,  in  the  ArchoBologia  (xxxi. 
252),  and  Mr.  D'Eyncourt  {Gent.  Mag.  xxxvi.  621) 
suggests  that  the  King  of  Bohemia's  crest  looks  more 
like  ostrich  feathers  than  a  vulture's  wing.  The  ques- 
tion may  be  considered  as  having  been  set  at  rest  by 
John  de  Ardern.  He  was  a  physician  contemporary 
with  the  Black  Prince ;  and,  in  a  manuscript  of  his, 
in  the  Sloane  Collection  (76  fo.  61),  Ardern  distinctly 
states  that  the  prince  derived  the  feathers  from  the 
blind  king. 

Subsequently  to  the  truce  agreed  to  by  the  two 
sovereigns  after  the  affair  at  Calais,  the  king,  queen, 
the  prince,  and  a  numerous  suite  sailed  for  England, 
about  Michaelmas  Day.     The  fleet  was  sorely  shaken 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  157 

by  a  terrific  storm,  and  several  lives  were  lost.  It  was 
on  this  occasion  that  Edward  gave  to  the  prince  an 
instance  of  his  piety  and  perplexity,  by  addressing 
himself,  when  the  tempest  was  at  its  worst,  to  our 
lady  of  succour,  "O  blessed  Mary,  my  mistress,"  ex- 
claimed the  king,  "  how  is  it,  and  what  does  it  mean, 
that,  when  I  am  on  my  way  to  France,  you  give  me 
fair  wind,  a  smooth  sea,  and  all  attendant  prosperity, 
but  when  I  am  returning  to  England  I  meet  with 
nothing  but  cruel  misfortune,  and  am  exposed  to 
the  most  disagreeable  circumstances?"  So  writes 
Adamus  Murimuthensis,  a  contemporary  of  the 
prince ;  but  that  gossiping  historian  does  not  inform 
us  of  the  effect  of  this  royal  remonstrance  against  a 
rough  passage  over  the  Channel. 

Between  Cressy  and  Poictiers  was  as  a  rehearsing 
for  another  great  drama  after  the  completion  of  that 
which  had  won  the  applause  of  millions.  At  the  siege 
of  Calais,  after  Cressy,  there  was  abundance  of  hard 
and  honourable  toil  before  the  eight  burghers  ap- 
peared, roped  and  ready  for  hanging,  in  presence  of 
their  conqueror.  Voltaire  has  endeavoured  to  render 
this  incident  insignificant,  but  in  vain ;  and  the  fact 
remains  that  the  Black  Prince  preceded  his  mother 
Philippa  in  interceding  for  the  brave  men  who  had 
defended  their  homes,  as  every  man  will  defend  his 
when  threatened  by  an  invader. 

During  a  short  period  of  comparative  peace  we 
trace  the  prince  to  Windsor,  where  he  shares  in  the 
honour  and  glory  of  the  newly  created  Order  of 
the  Garter,  stands  godfather,  at  new  Windsor  Castle, 
to  his  little  and  short-lived  brother,  William ;  and,  on 
occasion  of   that  rough   tournament   play,  near  the 


158       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

castle,  called  hastiludesy  he  presents  a  courser  to  the 
queen,  which  bears  the  knightly  name  of  Bawzan  de 
Burgh. 

Clarke  rather  hastily  remarks  that,  between  the  two 
periods  above  indicated,  "  the  presence  of  the  father 
obscured  the  actions  and  virtues  of  the  son,"  even 
**as  the  splendour  of  the  sun  darkens  the  stars." 
This,  however,  is  rendering  small  justice  to  the  prince, 
who  when  by  his  father's  side  equalled  his  father, 
and  when  exercising  an  independent  command  was 
equal  to  the  reputation  which  he  bore. 

In  illustration  of  the  former  I  may  mention  the 
sea-fight  with  the  Spanish  fleet  off  Rye,  in  Sussex, 
in  1350.  This  was  brought  about  by  the  piratical 
conduct  of  that  fleet  toward  English  vessels  on  our 
coast.  King  Edward  and  the  prince,  with  a  noble 
company,  set  sail  from  Sandwich,  on  an  August 
morning,  in  a  little  flotilla  which,  when  it  ranged 
alongside  of  the  huge  Spanish  carracks  off  Rye, 
seemed  to  lie  at  the  mercy  of  its  gigantic  opponents. 
But  a  score  of  the  stupendous  vessels  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  victors,  after  a  fight  running  into 
the  second  day,  illustrated  the  chivalry  by  which 
they  had  been  won.  In  fairness,  too,  it  must  be 
added,  that  the  prince's  friend,  Sir  John  de  Golds- 
brough  (whose  Yorkshire  seat  is  now  occupied 
by  a  branch  of  the  family  of  Lascelles),  was  the 
hero  of  the  day.  Young  Sir  John's  heroism  cost  him 
his  life,  and  "to  repair  his  loss,"  says  Arthur  CoUins, 
"  King  Edward  advanced  no  less  than  fourscore  young 
gentlemen,  who  performed  well  in  the  fight,  to  the 
honour  of  knighthood."  The  valour  of  the  prince's 
Yorkshire  friend  must  have  been  great,  since  eighty 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  159 

new  knights  were  only  considered  his  equivalent. 
But,  says  Collins,  "the  Prince  of  Wales  had  a  great 
value  for  him,  on  account  of  his  extraordinary  quali- 
ties, and  almost  equal  age,  and  conformity  of  will  and 
■inclination."  The  incident  may  remind  my  readers 
of  **La  petite  monnaie  de  Turenne." 

Against  a  prince  of  such  renown,  however,  his 
Cheshire  subjects,  if  they  may  be  so  called,  once 
rose  in  rebellion.  The  prince  advanced  to  subdue, 
accompanied  by  a  chief  justice,  to  hang  the  subdued. 
Before  this  double  terror  the  Cheshire  men  offered 
to  compound  with  their  princely  master  by  paying 
him  5,000  marks,  provided  he  relieved  them  of  the 
presence  of  that  terrible  chief  justice.  The  matter 
was  not  definitively  settled  until  after  a  little  furnish- 
ing of  the  gallows,  and  levying  of  fines,  and  seizing 
of  lands  and  tenements  into  the  hands  of  the  prince. 
And  the  more  pious  chroniclers  have  praised  him  for 
his  generous  piety,  seeing  that,  on  passing  by  Vale 
Royal,  and  beholding  there  the  gorgeous  but  unfin- 
ished church  founded  by  the  good  King  Edward,  his 
great-grandfather,  he  liberally  contributed  toward  its 
completion  500  marks,  the  tithe  of  the  original  fine 
received  by  him  as  Earl  of  Chester. 

The  reopening  of  the  French  quarrel  afforded  the 
prince  another  opportunity  for  displaying  his  valour, 
courtesy,  and  generosity.  When  that  quarrel,  in  the 
year  1356,  drifted  the  two  nations  into  war,  all 
the  ships  of  a  certain  tonnage  between  the  Thames 
and  the  Tyne  were  pressed  for  transport  service. 
What  followed  on  the  landing  of  our  troops  is  a 
familiar  story  in  every  household.  The  prince, 
it  will   be  remembered,   held   an  independent  com- 


i6o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

mand  in  the  south  of  France,  while  the  king  held 
a  menacing  position  in  the  north.  Heaven  had 
encouraged  our  army  by  favouring  omens;  and  the 
popular  heart  was  cheered  by  a  legend,  that  a  banner 
gules  and  a  banner  azure  had  been  seen  contending 
in  the  skies,  and  that  the  latter  had  fallen  before  the 
national  flag  of  England. 

From  city  to  city,  the  Prince  of  Wales  passed  on, 
after  what  now  would  be  rather  considered  the  fash- 
ion of  a  barbarian  than  of  a  Christian  soldier.  He 
passed  on  as  a  destroyer,  refusing  tribute  money, 
and  asserting  that  he  came  to  overthrow  towns  and 
ruin  populations.  Heaven  was  propitiated  by  such 
a  course,  for  had  not  a  hare  crossed  the  march  of 
the  English  army }  Success  made  that  army  careless 
of  all  besides ;  and  when  they  suffered  so  that  there 
was  no  water  even  for  the  horses,  and  the  latter 
staggered  with  drunkenness,  under  the  wine  which 
had  been  given  them  as  a  substitute,  the  wayworn 
soldiery  only  laughed  at  the  unusual  spectacle. 

To  rouse  the  courage  of  his  weary  men,  the  prince 
delivered  heart-stirring  addresses,  which  are  reported 
in  the  chronicles  with  all  the  minuteness  of  Livy. 
Good  tidings  were  also  despatched  to  cheer  hearts  at 
home ;  and  when  Narbonne  was  taken,  men  repeated, 
with  congratulatory  smiles,  that  "it  was  a  city  little 
less  than  London  !  "  For  two  months  the  prince  rode 
forward,  devastating  as  he  advanced,  rarely  leaving 
a  town  behind  him  worth  garrisoning ;  and  when  he 
did,  providing  so  well  for  the  commissariat  of  his 
soldiers  that  the  worst  grievance  that  ever  issued 
from  the  garrison  of  a  city  so  occupied  was  on  ac- 
count of  an  insufficiency  of  fresh  fish  and  cabbages. 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  i6i 

King  John  of  France  turned  back  from  encounter- 
ing King  Edward,  in  order  that  he  might  meet  and 
overthrow  the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  had  with  him 
above  sixty  thousand  men  to  our  poor  eight  thousand ; 
and  the  prince  was  hard  put  to  it  by  the  siege  of 
Romorantin,  from  which  he  could  not  move ;  for  he 
had  sworn  by  the  most  solemn  oath  he  was  ever 
known  to  use  —  by  his  father's  soul  —  that  he  would 
not  strike  banner  from  before  the  place  till  it  had 
fallen  into  his  power. 

He  kept  his  word,  but  still  was  he  in  sore  straits, 
when  on  Monday,  the  19th  of  September,  1356,  after 
much  of  negotiation  and  interference  of  priests,  and 
mutual  propositions,  the  French  came  on  to  eat  up 
the  little  English  army  amid  the  vines  and  bushes 
of  the  field  of  Poictiers.  They  came  on  as  to  a  festi- 
val, decked  in  their  brightest  and  their  best,  and  with 
the  lightest  of  hearts  under  the  gayest  of  apparel. 
They  were  light  of  heart  because  they  had  reason  to 
know  the  English  were  in  such  distress  that  the 
prince  himself,  in  his  excess  of  prudence,  had  been 
willing  to  conclude  a  treaty,  or  a  peace,  on  terms 
almost  humiliating  to  himself.  In  proportion  as  he 
was  humble,  the  French  king  was  arrogant ;  and 
when  the  latter  insisted  that  the  Prince  of  Wales 
should  not  only  yield  all  he  had,  but  even  surrender 
himself  and  a  hundred  knights  captives  to  the  King 
of  France,  the  wrath  of  the  prince  was  as  good  as  a 
thousand  men  to  him. 

"  England  shall  never  have  to  pay  ransom  of  mine," 
cried  the  noble  young  leader.  If  he  could  not  con- 
quer, he  would  surely  die  gloriously, — and  that  will- 
ingly, too,  albeit  he  left  behind  him  many  a  heart  he 


1 62       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

loved,  many  a  heart  by  which  he  was  beloved,  —  as 
did  most  of  his  followers.  And  leader  and  followers, 
stout  of  heart,  firm  of  purpose,  calm  of  aspect,  and 
resolute  to  win,  awaited  the  assault. 

How  often  have  we  not  contemplated  that  gallant 
band  on  the  point  of  being  overwhelmed  during  the 
three  hours,  from  nine  till  noon,  of  that  September 
morning,  during  which  it  repeatedly  foiled  every 
attempt  —  some  rash,  some  prudent,  all  full  of  peril 

—  to  sweep  it  from  its  stronghold.  Archers  plied 
their  winged  death ;  men-at-arms  thrust  lance  or 
drove  pike  till  their  arms  were  weary  before  their 
hearts ;  a  shot  now  and  then,  at  very  rare  intervals, 

—  for  a  cannon  was  a  marvellously  slow  deliverer  of 
death  in  those  days,  —  told  of  the  horrors  of  war  in 
louder  tongue  than  usual ;  but  the  bravest,  the  bold- 
est, the  most  terrible  of  that  never-to-be-forgotten 
day,  were  among  the  English  knights  and  noblemen ; 
men  who,  like  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  other  good 
fellows  of  the  true  blood,  came  it  whence  it  might, 
pounded  away  with  battle-axe,  or  worked  at  death's 
harvest  with  the  sword,  till  the  flesh  on  their  hands 
was  worn  to  the  bone. 

The  present  Duke  of  Aumale,  in  his  recently  pub- 
lished account  of  the  residence  of  King  John  in  Eng- 
land, gives  him  more  credit  for  his  courage  than  for 
his  strategic  ability,  and  laments  that  the  army,  of 
which  he  was  the  head,  was  not  true  to  its  established 
reputation  for  bravery.  The  assertion  seems  only 
partially  well  founded ;  humanly  speaking,  a  victory 
achieved  by  a  handful  of  men  over  a  large  army 
argues  that  something  must  have  been  wrong  in  the 
leading  or  the  following  of  the  great  multitude,  but 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  163 

it  cannot  deprive  the  handful  of  its  glory.  With  his 
small  means  the  Prince  of  Wales  accomplished 
a  mighty  end,  and  crowned  a  glorious  name.  At  a 
critical  moment,  on  a  hint  from  Chandos,  he  took  up 
the  offensive;  and  the  result  of  the  bold  move  for- 
ward was  a  victory  at  which  France  stood  aghast, 
and  England,  as  is  her  wont  in  triumph,  felt  content 
in  its  heart  of  hearts,  bearing  its  glory  with  tranquil 
dignity. 

The  victory  was  one  morning's  work,  but  sundown 
had  come  before  the  hunt  was  up ;  and  the  evening 
and  the  morning  were  worthy  of  each  other.  At 
night,  the  French  king  and  his  young  son,  Philip  the 
Bold,  sat  rather  guests  than  captives  in  the  tent  of 
their  princely  vanquisher,  who  waited  on  them  as 
respectfully  as  the  king's  own  page  would  have  done, 
praising  their  courage,  consoling  them  in  their  ill 
fortune,  alluding  to  the  chances  of  war,  and  yet  as- 
cribing all  to  the  will  of  God.  It  is  true,  that  it  is 
easy  for  a  conqueror  to  be  courteous ;  but  Edward 
of  Woodstock  was  always  so  by  principle  and  by 
inclination.  He  sympathised  in  a  certain  degree 
with  his  cousins  of  France  —  especially  with  that 
bold  young  cousin  Philip,  whose  heart  was  so  reso- 
lute, even  when  the  sword  had  been  stricken  from 
his  grasp,  and  whose  tongue  was  as  ready  to  assail  as 
that  sword  would  have  been  to  smite,  had  it  been 
placed  in  his  hands,  and  the  boy  had  had  the  chance 
of  renewing  the  combat,  with  hope  of  successful 
issue. 

For  courtesy's  sake,  indeed,  and  to  save  the  self- 
respect  and  soothe  the  honest  pride  of  the  royal 
prisoners,  they  were  permitted  to  wear  their  arms. 


1 64       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

This  chivalrous  courtesy  King  Edward  had  taught  his 
son,  and  Prince  Edward  was  of  so  apt  a  disposition 
that  such  instruction  was  improved  by  him  in  its 
practical  application. 

Upon  the  field  where  the  English  left  one  man 
dead,  and  the  French  left  a  score,  bards  with  small 
inspiration  struck  their  jingling  harps.  Notable  in- 
deed were  the  war  poems  and  elegies  sung  on  this 
occasion  —  notable  for  their  pedantic  dulness  and 
their  bombastic  nonsense.  The  French  epigram- 
makers  were  as  busy  as  the  English  poetasters,  the 
former  sneering  in  copious  but  inharmonious  measure 
at  the  victory  achieved  by  the  prince ;  and  the  poet- 
asters replying  in  forty  meaningless  stanzas  to  half  a 
dozen  lines  of  epigrams  without  point  and  satires 
without  smartness.  The  curious  may  read  these 
in  the  old  chroniclers,  and  be  neither  edified  nor 
amused. 

Far  better  worth  repeating  are  the  paragraphs  in  a 
letter  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  addressed  from  Bor- 
deaux, in  the  following  October,  to  the  Bishop  of 
Worcester,  giving  a  brief  account  of  the  battle,  —  an 
account  which  did  not  reach  the  prelate  till  Decem- 
ber. **  We  are  quite  certain,"  says  the  writer,  **  that 
by  reason  of  your  devout  prayers  and  those  of  others, 
God  hath  in  all  our  needs  lent  us  his  aid,  for  which 
we  are  bound  all  our  days  to  thank  him."  After  this 
acknowledgment,  a  few  words  suffice  to  tell  of  the 
great  achievement.  **  We  heard  news  that  the  King 
of  France  with  great  force,  very  near  to  our  quarters, 
was  coming  in  order  to  battle  with  us,  and  we  ap- 
proached each  other,  so  that  the  battle  took  place 
between  us  in  such  manner  that   the   enemy  were 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  165 

discomfited  —  thanks  be  to  God  for  it."  There  is  no 
gasconade  here  about  being  covered  with  "glory." 
All  the  glory  he  ascribes  to  God.  **  Gaudete  Domino 
semper!''  (Rejoice  in  the  Lord  alway),  and  ^^ Itertim 
dicoy  gaudete  f"  (Again  I  say,  rejoice),  indicate  the 
piety  and  humility  of  this  great  and  modest  con- 
queror. 

When  the  prince  wrote  the  letter  we  have  cited, 
King  John  was  with  him  —  indeed,  the  royal  prisoner 
spent  the  winter  with  his  princely  captor  at  Bor- 
deaux ;  and  when  King  Edward  summoned  his  son 
and  King  John  to  England,  the  discontent  of  the 
Gascons  at  losing  both  was  only  appeased  by  a  gift 
of  a  hundred  thousand  florins  among  the  venal 
barons. 

From  the  outset  to  the  close  of  this  voyage  from 
Bordeaux  to  England,  the  courtesy  of  the  prince  was 
remarkable.  He  allowed  his  illustrious  captive  to 
cross  the  sea  in  a  ship  by  himself,  attended  by  his 
suite,  and  this,  although  he  was  informed  that  the 
French  were  on  the  watch  to  rescue  their  sovereign. 
After  eleven  days  and  nights  the  whole  squadron 
reached  Sandwich,  whence,  after  repose,  the  travel- 
lers journeyed  to  London,  visiting  the  churches  by 
the  way,  and  leaving  offerings  at  the  various  shrines. 

After  four  days  of  this  wayfaring,  that  splendid 
May-mom  entry  was  made  into  London,  in  which  the 
prince  rode  on  a  black  palfrey  by  the  side  of  his  pris- 
oner, who  was  mounted  on  the  white  war-horse  he 
had  ridden  so  bravely  at  Poictiers.  The  London 
Companies  did  their  splendid  best  to  welcome  this 
illustrious  pair,  but  the  Goldsmiths  excelled  them  all 
by  the  costliness,  the  quaintness,  and  the  good  taste 


1 66       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  their  device.  Over  the  path  by  which  the  king 
and  the  prince  rode,  were  suspended  fantastic  cages, 
within  each  of  which  stood  an  English  girl  of  rare 
beauty,  whose  pretty  office  it  was  to  scatter  flowers 
of  gold  and  silver  filigree  work  upon  the  heroes.  As 
King  John  gazed  at  these  fair  ones  he  may  have  con- 
trasted them,  to  their  advantage,  with  the  damosels 
of  France ;  and  as  the  prince  looked  too,  and  beheld 
those  pretty  birds,  he  applauded  a  device  which  man- 
ifested the  superiority  of  English  beauty,  while  it  ren- 
dered honour  to  bravery  triumphant  and  to  valour  in 
misfortune.  This  show  of  English  charms,  added  to 
the  enormous  crowd  which  filled  the  streets,  may 
account  for  the  fact  that  it  took  the  king  and  prince 
nine  hours  to  ride  from  the  city  to  the  Savoy  — 
but  there  was  probably  also  some  feasting  by  the 
way. 

Thus  far  Prince  Edward  as  soldier  and  as  host.  We 
have  had  some  note  of  his  early  gallantry,  too ;  and, 
indeed,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  love-passages 
in  the  life  of  this  renowned  prince  commenced  won- 
derfully early  even  for  the  period  when  precocity  in 
those  tender  matters  was  a  rule  —  among  princes  at 
least.  Thus,  at  Antwerp,  in  1339,  we  have  seen 
him,  to  use  the  words  of  Barnes,  a  "proper,  hopeful 
young  gentleman  of  almost  ten  years  of  age,  whose 
great  grace  and  exact  shape  made  him  as  acceptable 
to  the  ladies'  eyes  as  his  large  and  well-proportioned 
limbs  raised  a  full  expectation  of  his  future  manhood 
among  the  lords  both  of  England  and  Almain."  For 
this  little  man  a  little  lady  was  provided,  that  is  pro- 
posed ;  and  even  before  the  "  hopeful  young  gentle- 
man '*  arrived  in  Antwerp,  a  project  of  marriage  with 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  167 

him  was  entertained,  the  designed  bride  being  Mar- 
garet, daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Brabant,  whose  heart 
was  as  unoccupied  as  that  of  a  damsel  of  four  years 
old  could  be. 

This  projected  marriage  with  Margaret  of  Brabant, 
however,  came  to  nothing,  and  many  other  proposed 
unions  between  the  prince  and  ladies  of  various  great 
families  failed  in  like  manner  to  be  realised.  In 
few  cases  can  this  failure  be  attributed  to  the  ladies 
themselves  ;  for  the  prince  was  of  such  figure,  fame, 
quality,  and  disposition,  as  to  render  the  proudest 
young  ladies  of  his  day  gratified  by  his  notice  and 
attention.  The  fact  appears  to  have  been  that  the 
heart  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  preoccupied  when 
his  family  was  pointing  out  to  him  objects  worthy  of 
its  homage.  But  there  was  one  object  to  which  that 
homage  was  already  paid,  —  Joan  of  Kent,  the  Fair 
Countess,  as  she  was  called,  —  daughter  of  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Kent ;  and  of  such  peerless  beauty  that 
romance  claimed  her  for  its  own,  and  made  of  the 
loves  of  Edward  and  the  Lady  Joan  a  story  that  for 
centuries  wearied  no  listeners,  and  which  has  its 
willing  audience  still. 

Wonderful  is  it  that  in  our  villages  throughout  all 
England,  and  even  brave  Scotland  too,  the  tradition 
of  the  loves  of  the  Black  Prince  and  the  Fair  Joan  of 
Kent  has  survived,  and  is  at  least  as  well  known  as 
his  victories,  his  generosity,  and  his  chivalry.  To 
this  day  the  chap-books  repeat  the  old  story,  with 
marvellous  additions  of  circumstance  and  speech, 
that  mark  the  interest  of  the  public  who  purchase 
the  pamphlets  that  have  issued  in  great  numbers 
from  Falkirk  and  Northampton.     In  these  old  coun- 


i68       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

try  legends,  the  Black  Prince  is  first  stricken  by  the 
charms  of  his  fair  kinswoman,  at  a  dinner  at  Dover, 
in  the  house  of  her  hospitable  father,  where  the 
prince  and  his  parents  are  guests,  after  the  crowning 
triumph  so  splendidly  achieved  at  Poictiers.  The 
style  of  the  story  corresponds  with  its  anachronisms 
—  it  is  "  all  abroad ; "  but  it  is  made  for  a  public 
whose  taste  has  not  changed  since  the  tale  was  first 
told  by  cottage  fire,  or  village  common,  or  read  in 
shady  lanes  to  sympathetic  listeners.  The  very 
courtesy  of  the  couple  is  perched  on  the  very  highest 
of  stilts,  and  the  flowers  of  speech  are  showered  in 
whole  nosegays.  The  lover  is  a  wooer  that  chivalry 
might  be  proud  of,  and  Joan  is  a  lady  willing  to  be 
won,  yet  not  too  anxious  to  appear  so.  In  absence, 
the  prince  addresses  her  in  letters,  the  originals  of 
which  are  not  so  easy  to  find  as  to  look  for,  as  "  fair- 
est of  creatures ; "  and  the  Fair  Countess,  "  who 
often  bedewed  her  rosy  cheeks  with  tears  for  his 
absence,"  wipes  them  away  to  kiss  the  pleasant 
words,  and  pen  a  loving  answer  in  return,  beseeching 
him,  "  if  he  had  any  compassion  for  her  life,  that  he 
would  not  too  far  hazard  himself  among  the  hands 
of  his  enemies."  There  are  sufficient  impediments 
in  the  course  of  this  true  love  to  render  the  narra- 
tive interesting  to  rustic  swains  and  rural  maids ; 
and  when  the  prince  has  been  commended  for  that 
his  virtue  is  honourable,  and  the  dread  fathers  on 
either  side  give  their  consent,  a  jubilant  shout  goes 
up  from  the  heart  of  the  old  framer  of  the  legend, 
with  a  joke  upon  the  happy  conclusion,  likely  to 
render  village  maidens  more  merry  than  ashamed. 
I    have   alluded   to   this  tradition,  otherwise  worth 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  169 

little,  because  it  manifests  the  interest  which  must 
have  early  attached  itself  to  the  story  of  the  love  of 
Edward  for  the  brilliant  Joan  of  Kent.  There  has 
been  no  marriage  of  a  Prince  of  Wales  —  and  this 
Edward  was  the  first  who  ever  married  while  bearing 
the  title  —  in  which  the  people  of  England  felt  and 
maintained  a  more  warm  and  enduring  interest. 

The  old  romance  was  probably  founded  on  circum- 
stances with  which  we  are  now  unacquainted.  At 
what  period  the  prince  began  to  look  with  something 
more  than  merely  friendly  eye  on  Joan,  is  now 
unknown,  but  he  must  have  been  early  and  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  daughter  and  heiress  of 
Edmund  of  Woodstock,  Earl  of  Kent,  the  half- 
brother  of  the  first  Prince  of  Wales.  In  her  infancy, 
a  marriage  contract  bound  her  to  Montacute,  Earl 
of  Salisbury,  but  in  her  girlhood  she  espoused  Sir 
Thomas  Holland,  who,  by  right  of  such  union, 
assumed  the  title  of  Earl  of  Kent.  If  Collins's  narra- 
tive may  be  relied  on,  Salisbury,  to  whom  she  had 
been  preengaged,  endeavoured,  during  the  knight's 
absence,  to  enforce  the  terms  of  the  old  contract ; 
and  Sir  Thomas  had  to  appeal  to  the  Pope,  who, 
deeming  the  accomplished  fact  of  marriage  to  be  of 
more  importance  than  the  earlier  contract,  pro- 
nounced the  union  between  this  celebrated  beauty 
and  the  knight  to  be  valid.  Salisbury  consoled  him- 
self with  another  wife.  Joan  became  the  mother  of 
one  daughter  and  three  boys.  To  two  of  the  latter, 
it  is  said,  but  certainly  to  the  eldest  of  them,  the 
Prince  of  Wales  fulfilled  the  responsible  office  of 
godfather.  This  office,  together  with  the  kinship 
of  Joan  and  Edward,  was  an  impediment  to  their 


I70       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

subsequent  marriage,  which  could  only  be  levelled, 
and  was  so  levelled,  by  the  hand  of  the  Pope. 

Meanwhile,  the  lady  grew  as  famous  for  her  wit 
and  amiability  as  for  her  beauty.  How  far  she  may 
have  been  discreet  as  well  as  fair  and  witty,  there 
is  some  doubt;  for  Queen  Philippa's  little  love  for 
her  is  said  to  have  been  founded  on  her  lack  of 
moral  character ;  and  Froissart,  who  was  often  near 
her,  does  not  appear  to  have  had  a  very  profound 
reverence  for  this  lady.  However  this  may  have 
been,  in  the  year  1361  Sir  Thomas  died ;  and  he  was 
scarcely  entombed  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  at 
the  widow's  side,  urging  her  to  remarry,  and  probably 
feeling  his  own  way  to  the  not  too  disconsolate  lady's 
heart,  by  proposing  some  match  to  her  as  much 
below  her  royal  birth  as  that  she  had  entered  into 
with  the  knight,  or  was  nearly  entering  into  with 
the  earl. 

At  this  period  Edward  of  Woodstock  is  described 
as  "the  glory  of  his  sex  for  military  performances 
and  all  princely  virtues ;  and  she  the  flower  of 
hers  for  a  most  surprising  beauty,  sweetened  with 
a  sprightly  wit  and  honourable  mind."  When  a  man 
thus  endowed  recommended  a  lady  of  such  qualities 
to  wed  with  a  gentleman  whom  the  prince  affected 
to  favour,  the  lady's  prompt  and  repeated  refusal  was 
probably  founded  on  the  conviction  that  the  prince 
was  not  seriously  prosecuting  the  suit  of  another. 
At  all  events  she  continued  to  deny  that  suit ;  and 
the  same  being  pressed  more  or  less  earnestly,  Joan 
at  length  explicitly  declared :  "  How,  when  she  was 
under  ward,  she  had  been  disposed  of  by  others,  but 
that  now,  being  at  years  of  discretion,  and  mistress 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  171 

of  her  own  actions,  she  would  not  cast  herself  below 
her  rank.  She  remembered  that  she  was  of  the 
blood  royal  of  England,  and  therefore  she  was  re- 
solved never  to  marry  again  but  to  a  prince,  for  qual- 
ity and  virtue  like  himself."  This  was  a  bold  speech, 
but  Joan  was  in  her  thirty-third  year,  when  a  woman 
may  be  daring  in  such  business,  if  she  ever  be.  The 
pretty  audacity  did  not  displease  the  prince,  who 
"  was  a  passionate  admirer,"  says  Collins,  "of  every 
gallant  spirit ;  and  knowing  what  she  said  was  true, 
he  presently  returned  her  compliment  in  an  endearing 
manner,  and,  from  that  instant,  became  a  suitor  for 
himself.  Having  imparted  his  affections  to  his  royal 
father,  he  was  pleased  with  his  thoughts  of  marriage ; 
and  they  being  within  the  degrees  of  consanguinity, 
he  procured  a  dispensation  from  the  Pope,  which 
bears  date  at  Avignon,  the  7th  of  the  Ides  of  Sep- 
tember, 1 361." 

On  the  loth  of  October,  1361,  this  marriage,  so 
unlucky  in  its  issue,  was  celebrated  with  extraordi- 
nary splendour  at  Windsor.  Among  those  in  whose 
presence  the  ceremony  was  performed,  some  chroni- 
clers omit  the  king ;  but  all  agree  in  mentioning  that 
the  queen,  much  as  she  had  once  objected  to  the 
bride,  was  there,  with  the  Queen  of  Scotland,  Maud, 
Countess  of  Hainault,  and  Edward's  most  attached 
sister,  Isabel  or  Elizabeth.  The  bridegroom  was  sup- 
ported by  his  brothers,  John  of  Gaunt  and  Edmund 
of  Langley.  Earls  of  more  modest  quality  of  blood, 
and  a  numerous  noble  company,  also  graced  a  cere- 
'  mony,  the  more  seriously  active  portion  of  which 
was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  official  services  of 
the  Bishops  of  Winchester,  Lincoln,  Salisbury,  and 


172        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Worcester,  one  single  Abbot  of  Westminster,  and  a 
leash  of  deans  —  of  Lichfield,  Lincoln,  and  the  Chapel 
Royal.  By  such  good  and  effectual  help  was  married 
to  an  English  lady  the  prince  whom  his  father  had 
thrice  sought  in  vain  to  unite  with  ladies  of  foreign 
birth,  namely,  with  Margaret  of  Brabant,  and  with 
two  respective  daughters  of  the  Kings  of  France  and 
Portugal/ 

The  newly  married  couple  of  mature  age  resided 
for  several  months  after  their  union  at  Berkham- 
stead,  in  Hertfordshire,  where  they  kept  a  gay 
house,  as  became  the  event  and  their  condition ; 
and  where  a  cheerful  family  circle  was  frequently 
assembled,  leaving  state,  and  the  anxieties  attendant 
thereon,  in  the  world  without. 

At  the  prince's  town  residence  there  was  not  less 
gaiety ;  for  he  was  addicted,  when  serious  duties  did 
not  prohibit  it,  to  a  joyous  life  amid  accessories  of 
splendour.  This  London  mansion  of  the  prince  was 
not  very  far  from  the  Tower.  Thousands  of  happy 
excursionists  and  anxious  men  of  business  daily  pass 
the  spot  where  once  stood  the  London  residence  of 
Joan  and  Edward.  If  a  man  stand  now  with  his 
back  to  the  monument,  looking  northward,  he  will 
have  before  him  the  site  of  the  noble  stone  mansion 
in  which  the  flower  of  chivalry  kept  house.  Stowe 
describes  it  as  above  Crooked-lane  end,  upon  Fish- 
street  Hill.  In  his  time  the  edifice  existed,  but  its 
dignity  was  lowered,  it  being  then  an  inn,  bearing 
the  sign  of  "The  Black  Bell."     The  old  Bell-yard, 

*  As  a  memorial  of  this  marriage,  the  prince  founded  the  chapel, 
still  to  be  seen,  in  some  decay,  but  also  much  beauty,  in  the  crypt  of 
the  Cathedral  of  Canterbury. 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  173 

which  was  a  portion  of  the  way  which  led  from  the 
prince's  house  to  the  old  London  Bridge,  was  swept 
away  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  when  the  erection 
of  the  present  bridge  required  the  improved  street- 
way,  which  has  since  been  accomplished. 

The  expenses  of  the  prince's  course  of  life  prob- 
ably exceeded  his  own  income,  and  had  to  be  de- 
frayed out  of  his  father's  purse.  So  much,  at  least, 
may  be  inferred  from  a  passage  in  Froissart  (vol.  i. 
ch.  214),  wherein  he  states  that  a  full  Parliament  was 
held  in  England  in  the  very  year  of  the  marriage  of 
Edward  and  Joan,  in  which  the  formation  of  estab- 
lishments for  the  king's  sons  was  seriously  consid- 
ered. The  younger  sons  had  some  jealousy  of  the 
eldest.  "They  considered,"  says  the  last-named 
chronicler,  "that  the  Prince  of  Wales  kept  a  noble 
and  grand  state,  as  he  well  might  do;  for  he  was 
valiant,  powerful,  and  rich,  and  had  besides  a  large 
inheritance  in  Aquitaine,  where  provisions  and  every- 
thing else  abounded.  They,  therefore,  remonstrated 
with  him,  and  told  him  from  the  king,  his  father,  that 
it  would  be  proper  for  him  to  reside  in  his  duchy, 
which  would  furnish  him  withal  to  keep  as  grand  an 
establishment  as  he  pleased.  The  barons  and  knights 
of  Aquitaine  were  also  desirous  of  his  residing  among 
them,  and  had  before  entreated  the  king  to  allow  him 
so  to  do ;  for,  although  the  Lord  John  Chandos  was 
very  agreeable  and  kind  to  them,  they  still  loved  bet- 
ter to  have  their  own  natural  lord  and  sovereign  than 
any  other." 

This  request  was  complied  with,  and  the  departure 
of  the  prince  and  princess  for  Aquitaine  soon  took 
place,  amid  a  prophetic  mingling  of  gloom  and  splen- 


174       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

dour.  I  do  not  know  whether  Edward  had  at  this 
time  manifested  any  symptoms  of  constitutional  weak- 
ness, but  it  is  certified  by  Froissart  that  men  then 
spoke  of  the  small  probability  of  his  succeeding  to 
the  throne.  It  must  have  been  a  suspicion  of  the 
ambition  of  John  of  Gaunt  that  induced  the  same 
prophets  to  foretell  that  the  sceptre  would  soon 
depart  from  the  direct  heirs  of  Edward  III.  Amid 
such  vaticination,  but  surrounded  by  circumstances 
of  great  splendour,  Edward  and  Joan  departed  for 
their  new  duchy,  sailing  across  the  seas  in  one  of 
the  most  completely  equipped  fleets  that  had  ever 
left  these  shores;  and  finding  in  the  duchy  a  wel- 
come as  hearty  as  if  every  man  there  recognised  in 
the  illustrious  pair  a  double  source  of  happiness  for 
his  country. 

In  that  country  the  prince  and  his  consort  resided 
from  the  year  1362  to  1371.  The  details  of  their 
government  in  Guyenne  dazzle  by  their  extravagant 
splendour,  and  fatigue  the  mind  as  excess  of  splen- 
dour is  wont  to  weary  the  eye.  Wherever  they  held 
court,  or  he  kept  camp,  there  reigned  a  glory  agree- 
able to  the  fashion  of  the  times,  but  costly  alike 
to  prince  and  to  people.  At  Angouleme  or  at  Bor- 
deaux, in  their  favourite  city  of  Limoges,  or  in  any 
other  locality  within  the  limits  of  their  rule,  there 
were  they  surrounded  by  warriors  and  nobles,  and 
troubadours  and  poets,  philosophers  and  fools.  So 
renowned  became  this  court  for  its  brilliancy,  and 
the  head  of  it  for  liberal  courtesy,  that  even  the 
travelling  kings  of  the  day,  who  had  seen  all  that 
was  beautiful  and  marvellous  in  the  world,  accounted 
of  themselves  as  having  beheld  nothing  if  their  eyes 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  175 

had  not  witnessed  the  glories  of  the  court  and  the 
charms  of  the  presence  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  in 
Guyenne. 

Probably  the  two  most  joyous  events,  in  the  palace, 
at  least,  and  which  gave  rise  to  entertainments  that 
might  have  afforded  suggestive  hints  to  a  framer  of 
Eastern  romances,  were  the  successive  births  of  the 
two  sons  of  this  marriage,  —  Edward  of  Angouleme 
and  Richard  of  Bordeaux.  The  former,  heir  to  a 
principality  and  a  kingdom,  at  whose  coming  into  the 
world  Gascony  and  England  alike  shouted  for  joy, 
and  in  congratulating  whose  happy  mother,  kinsfolk 
and  subjects  manifested  a  deliriously  expensive  glad- 
ness, died  in  his  childhood,  and  they  who  had  hailed 
his  coming  deplored  him  as  unfortunate,  in  being 
snatched  from  that  glorious  inheritance  to  which  he 
was  born  !  What  he  lost,  the  second  brother  gained, 
and  with  it  his  own  destruction  ;  but  at  the  birth  of 
Richard  of  Bordeaux,  too,  there  were  jousts  and 
tournaments,  and  minstrelsy  and  dancing,  and  a  world 
of  fatiguing  and  foolish  delights,  as  though  he  had 
been  heir  to  an  empire  the  eternal  felicity  of  which 
had  been  irrevocably  fixed  by  Heaven.  When  Richard 
was  born,  there  were  two  kings  sojourning  at  the 
court  of  Edward,  —  James,  King  of  Minorca,  and 
Charles,  King  of  Navarre.  These  two  kings  tarried 
for  the  christening,  at  which  King  James  and  Richard, 
Bishop  of  Agen,  were  the  godfathers  of  that  most 
unlucky  babe,  —  the  prelate  giving  to  the  prince  his 
own  Christian  name,  but  conferring  on  him  no  charm 
against  deep  misery  thereby. 

During  a  few  years,  the  gaiety  and  splendour  of 
this  court  increased  rather  than  diminished.     There 


176       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  a  season  of  peace,  during  which  Edward  and  his 
men-at-arms  would  have  sickened  for  lack  of  martial 
exercise,  but  for  the  joyous  and  brilliant  activity  of 
the  court.  But  whether  it  was  gladdening  peace  or 
grievous  war,  Joan  bloomed  and  flourished  in  buxom 
excess  of  health,  heartiness,  and  beauty,  and  praise 
the  most  disinterested  vaunted  the  grace,  the  good- 
ness, and  gay  bearing  of  the  fair  and  matronly 
Princess  of  Wales. 

At  length  came  that  symphony  of  war,  overture  to 
the  last  gorgeous  drama  of  action,  in  which  the  prince 
was  to  take  part.  It  came  from  Spain,  where  French 
influence  had  dethroned  Pedro  the  Cruel,  and  set  up 
in  his  place  his  brother  Don  Henry.  The  influence 
so  exercised  at  once  inclined  the  prince  to  second  the 
cause  of  Pedro ;  and  this  course  he  was  authorised  to 
take  by  his  father.  King  Edward.  The  Spaniard,  at 
the  same  time,  urged  the  prince  to  active  measures 
in  his  favour,  to  purchase  which  studied  falsehoods 
fell  from  his  lips  as  fast  as  he  could  give  utterance  to 
words.  The  prince  believed  all,  or  feigned  to  believe 
all.  He  was  eager  to  be  in  the  field  ;  for  the  decade 
of  his  glory  had  arrived,  and  as  1346  had  its  Cressy, 
and  '56  its  Poictiers,  so  now  in  '66  he  set  out  to  his 
crowning  fight  and  his  closing  triumph. 

In  this  last  affair,  the  statesmanship  as  well  as  the 
soldierly  qualities  of  the  prince  become  apparent.  In 
aiding  Don  Pedro,  Edward  hoped  to  obtain  possession 
of  Biscay.  The  former  had  entered  into  an  engage- 
ment which  had  this  end  in  view ;  had  offered  to 
make  Edward's  son  King  of  Galicia,  and  on  the 
ample  person  of  Joan  had  suspended,  as  pledges,  his 
richest  jewels.     Further,  he  was  lavish  of  promises 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  177 

to  the  English  captains  and  soldiery,  for  the  perform- 
ance of  which  the  prince  became  security,  and  the 
disregard  of  which  chafed  his  proud  spirit  and 
stricken  body  sorely.  In  short,  Pedro  of  Castile 
both  borrowed  money  from  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
which  he  did  not  mean  to  repay,  and  promised  large 
recompense  for  aid  which  he  hoped  to  obtain  for 
nothing.  Some  proofs  of  this  are  to  be  met  with  in 
Sir  Francis  Palgrave's  "Ancient  Kalendars  and  In- 
ventories of  the  Treasury  of  his  Majesty's  Exchequer  " 
(1837).  In  one  of  these  treasury  memoranda,  Don 
Pedro  of  Castile  gives  his  bond  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  for  the  repayment  of  sixteen  thousand  florins 
before  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  next  ensuing. 
In  another,  the  same  monarch  agrees  to  pay  the 
prince  and  his  army  for  their  aid  against  his  brother, 
Don  Enrique.  In  a  third,  Pedro  cedes  to  the  prince 
and  the  prince's  heirs,  for  ever,  certain  fortresses  on 
the  northern  coast  of  Spain.  These  bonds  are  to  an 
enormous  amount,  and  in  their  very  magnitude  some 
have  seen  a  proof  that  Pedro  had  no  intention  of 
observing  them. 

Meanwhile,  the  Prince  of  Wales  converted  his  own 
plate  into  money,  and  distributed  the  produce  among 
his  officers,  in  order  to  enable  them  to  equip  them- 
selves. In  January,  1367,  he  penetrated  into  Spain, 
to  support  a  cause  which  was,  perhaps,  not  so  bad  as 
the  man  for  whose  sake  it  was  upheld.  The  Spanish 
and  French  chivalry  in  the  pay  of  the  bastard  brother 
of  Pedro,  Don  Enrique,  whom  the  people  had  adopted, 
knowing  well  that  the  English  were  invincible  in  a 
pitched  battle,  maintained  at  first  a  guerilla  warfare, 
and,  on  the  ground  where  this  was  maintained,  the 


178       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

name  of  many  a  spot  commemorates  some  feat  of 
England's  knighthood. 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  however,  soon  induced  his 
adversaries  to  meet  him  on  the  plains  near  Najera,  in 
Castile.  Sickness  had  reduced  the  army  of  which 
the  prince  was  the  leader  below  that  of  Don  Enrique  ; 
but  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  the  respective  num- 
bers were  so  wide  apart  as  thirty  thousand  English 
Gascons  against  one  hundred  thousand  Spaniards, 
French,  and  Free  Companies ;  or  that  with  such  odds 
the  victory  was  gained  at  the  cost  of  about  sixty  men 
and  four  knights  to  the  victors,  and  of  above  two 
thousand  to  the  vanquished,  exclusive  of  the  noblest 
knights  numbered  apart !  However  this  may  be,  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  previous  to  battle,  put  up  a  prayer, 
which  Froissart  has  preserved,  and  which  is  to  this 
effect :  "  Very  God,  Jesu  Christ,  who  hath  formed 
and  created  me,  consent  by  your  benign  grace  that  I 
may  have  this  day  victory  of  mine  enemies,  as  that 
I  do  is  in  a  rightful  quarrel  to  sustain  and  to  aid  this 
king  chased  out  of  his  own  heritage,  the  which  giveth 
me  courage  to  advance  myself  to  reestablish  him 
again  into  his  realm." 

In  this  way,  the  prince,  with  a  considerable  share 
of  Gascon  conceit,  and  probably  in  the  sharp  Gascon 
dialect,  which  he  spoke  habitually  and  perfectly,  re- 
minded Heaven  distinctly  that  he  was  in  the  right, 
and  looked  for  the  support  due  to  him  accordingly ! 
Into  the  narrative  of  the  battle  it  is  not  necessary  to 
enter.  Let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  the  issue  was 
uncertain,  till  Don  Enrique  and  Duguesclin  had  to 
contend  with  the  second  line  commanded  by  the 
Prince   of  Wales  in  person.     Then,    the    invincible 


s<  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  Sv 

I  spot  Cfimmemorates  some  ic^r  oi 
:iigbtho« 


i'riiice  ol 
^f  les  t'^  n- 
•  ile.     Si( 


bers  we 
Gascons 

the  \ 
and  foil; 


,  however,  soon  indv 

.:.;  on  the  plains  near  N^j.,.„,  .:i 

id  reduced  the  army  of  which 

iW  that  of  Don  Enrique  ; 

•  4....^  Ihat  the  respective  num- 

.fnf  t«  thirty  thousand  English 

thousand  Spaniards, 


Prince  <* 

which   FroiSi>arl  hdb  pre 
f.'t,.,f     '«Very  God,  Jesu 


above  two 

ve^  X\m  nva  o 

iver, 

to  this 

.,   >w.w  ,..,,, i  formed 


red  me,  consent  by  your  benign  grace  that  I 
'ry  of  mine  enemies,  as  that 

'  to  sustain  --  '  *       •     *     ^ 

Titag-e,  ■ 


and 

rdingly ! 

] 

♦wt  necessary  to 

Ci.v 

:»*-.!  the  issue   was 

unci 

:  Duguesclin  had  to 

contend 

>   second   ime   commanded 

Prince  x=:^ — 

.  -   ^a  pp'ra.r. Thrn,    fthi?    ii  . 

The  BltK  k  Prince  on  the  hield  of  Najerd 

rhotogra7)ure  from  the  painting  /'y  A    Sn/inas 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  179 

English  archers  threw  the  Castihan  infantry  into  dis- 
order, and  the  gallant  Edward  advancing,  from  that 
moment  the  battle  was  lost  to  his  antagonists. 

From  the  moment,  too,  that  it  was  gained  for  Don 
Pedro,  that  imworthy  individual  sought  to  depreciate 
the  services  of  the  English  prince,  to  fix  a  quarrel 
against  him,  and  to  cheat  him  alike  out  of  the  honour 
of  the  achievement,  and  the  money  he  had  advanced, 
or  for  which  he  had  rendered  himself  responsible,  and 
lacking  which,  the  triumph  would  not  have  been  ac- 
complished. The  angry  prince,  his  discontented  cap- 
tains, and  his  daily  decreasing  army  tarried  in  Spain 
till  the  autumn  of  this  year,  1367,  and  then,  with  a 
hearty  disgust  for  Spanish  honour,  marched  wearily 
back  toward  their  quarters  in  Gas  cony. 

From  the  fatal  Spanish  expedition  the  prince  and 
his  army  returned  in  equally  deplorable  condition, 
worn  out  by  want,  fatigue,  hard  fighting,  and  general 
misery.  Edward,  on  his  return  to  Joan  and  the 
young  prince  their  son,  wore  the  air  of  a  doomed 
man,  not  strong  enough  to  bear  the  burden  of  glory 
under  which  he  walked.  Some  who  knew  the  proud 
ambition  of  his  brother,  John  of  Gaunt,  laid  his  illness 
to  the  effects  of  poison.  Others  saw  in  it  the  con- 
sequences of  toil,  exposure,  and  lack  of  support  under 
a  deadly  atmosphere.  Walsingham  quotes  a  story  to 
the  effect  that  "  the  prince  having  one  day  got  intoxi- 
cated "  {intoxicatus  —  poisoned)  "  never  from  that 
period  to  the  end  of  his  life  enjoyed  health  of  body.'* 
But  it  was  not  to  an  overdraught  of  deadly  wine  that 
the  prince  owed  the  shattering  of  his  strength.  He 
shared  all  things  with  his  army,  be  it  good  or  ill,  and 
Walsingham,  in  adding  that  **  many  strong  and  valiant 


i8o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

men  after  the  glorious  Spanish  campaign  perished  by 
dysentery  and  other  disorders,  to  the  great  detriment 
of  the  kingdom  of  England,"  might  have  seen 
therein  the  cause  of  the  prince's  premature  decay, 
which  was  no  more  induced  by  the  poison  of  Spanish 
wine  than  it  was  by  the  poison  of  his  brother  of  Lan- 
caster. 

With  his  bodily  decay  all  other  evil  followed. 
Pedro,  true  Spaniard  in  his  profuseness  of  promise, 
true  Spaniard  in  his  carelessness  of  performance,  ac- 
quitted no  debt  which  he  had  incurred,  nor  paid  back 
any  sum  advanced  for  him  by  the  prince.  True 
Spaniard,  he  hugged  dishonour  and  repudiated  his 
most  solemn  engagements.  He  was  satisfied  with 
repaying  the  hard  cash  lent  him  and  the  too  generous 
aid  afforded  him,  in  empty  words  and  vainglorious 
compliments.  "  Whenever,"  he  said,  *'  England  should 
again  lend  a  prince's  or  a  general's  hand  to  assist 
Spain  in  the  attainment  of  victory,  that  English  leader 
should  have  the  vanguard  of  the  battle ;  and  when- 
ever such  leadership  or  succour  was  wanting,  the 
banner  of  England  should  always  be  carried  in  front 
of  the  warriors  of  Spain,  in  memory  of  the  bloody 
and  triumphant  day  of  Najera." 

This  was  all  the  prince  received  for  the  loan  of 
thousands  of  pounds  and  the  outpouring  of  English 
blood  to  help  Pedro  to  a  greatness  which  he  little 
merited.  The  government  of  his  duchy  became 
accordingly  full  of  difficulty  to  him.  He  was  unable 
to  pay  his  soldiers  for  past  services,  or  to  efficiently 
carry  on  an  administration  which  was  hourly  rendered 
more  difficult  still  by  the  intrigues  of  France.  By 
way  of  remedy,   he  decreed  a  general  taxation,  an 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  i8i 

impost  being  laid  on  every  hearth.  This  proved  a 
spark  which  spread  into  a  flame,  before  which  the 
English  ultimately  lost  nearly  all  their  material  tri- 
umphs in  France.  The  people  resisted  the  levying 
of  the  tax,  and  appealed  to  the  King  of  France. 
Charles,  who  had  succeeded  King  John,  summoned 
Edward  to  give  an  account  of  his  conduct ;  and  the 
sick  warrior,  fired  with  indignation  at  this  act  of 
sovereignty  on  the  part  of  Charles,  exclaimed  that 
he  would  give  his  account  with  sixty  thousand  men 
to  back  him. 

Then  burst  forth  that  war  so  desolating  to  the 
people,  and  in  which  no  party  ever  gained  a  triumph, 
but  something  attended  it  which  caused  it  to  take 
the  appearance  of  a  calamity.  In  the  midst  of  it 
Queen  Philippa  died,  but  her  sons  had  not  leisure  to 
mourn  her  loss.  As  the  war  raged,  the  invincible 
Chandos  was  slain  in  Poitou,  and  the  four  hundred 
thousand  francs  which  Edward  inherited  of  this  friend, 
who  had  no  other  heir,  could  not  compensate  him  for 
the  loss  of  such  a  soldier ;  especially  as  while  we  had 
lost  the  handsome  Chandos,  the  French  still  possessed 
the  ugly  but  hard-hitting  Duguesclin.  There  was 
Robert  Knolles,  indeed,  who  was  almost  as  good  as 
Chandos,  and  who  might  have  carried  the  English 
banner  as  triumphantly  as  Sir  John,  had  it  not  been 
for  foolish  lords  and  lordlings,  who  disobeyed  the 
orders  of  Robin,  preferring  rather  to  be  beaten  by 
hostile  nobles  than  to  be  led  to  victory  by  an  English 
plebeian ! 

The  lion  was  roused  by  the  cry  of  anguish  from 
his  best  men,  and  by  the  fact  of  his  fair  city  of 
Limoges  having  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  enemy. 


i82        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

The  prince  shook  with  wrath,  vowed  he  would  spare 
no  man  who  had  had  hand  in  surrendering  the  city, 
flung  himself  on  the  devoted  locality,  took  it  by 
assault,  swept  through  its  streets  like  a  devastating 
hurricane,  and  would  have  destroyed  all  that  opposed 
or  who  had  offended  him,  but  for  the  untiring  bravery 
and  prowess  of  three  French  captains,  in  honour  of 
whose  valour  he  sheathed  his  sword,  and  pronounced 
words  of  peace. 

This  was  his  supreme  effort.  Henceforward,  slow 
disease  laid  hold  upon  him,  and  in  1371,  leaving  a 
lieutenant  as  vice-duke  in  his  duchy,  the  pale  prince, 
with  Joan,  more  buxom  than  ever,  and  the  little  Rich- 
ard of  Bordeaux,  proceeded  to  England,  where  his 
widowed  father  received  him  with  open  arms  —  will- 
ing even  then  to  hail  in  him  the  heir  come  to  his 
inheritance. 

That  father,  whose  heart  had  been  riven  by  the 
death  of  his  consort  Philippa,  did  his  utmost  to  pre- 
serve the  precious  life  of  a  son  so  capable  of  sus- 
taining the  glory  and  furthering  the  prosperity  of 
England.  But  this  was  not  to  be.  For  five  years 
the  Prince  of  Wales  lingered  between  life  and  death, 
slowly  but  surely  drawing  nearer  to  the  grave,  and 
deprived  of  the  consolation  of  seeing  a  happy  future 
ior  his  little  son.  He  sojourned,  during  this  season 
of  his  decay,  now  at  his  mansion  near  London  Bridge, 
occasionally  at  Berkham stead,  and  finally  at  his 
father's  palace  of  Westminster.  A  year  previous 
to  his  demise,  a  bearded  comet  of  considerable  mag- 
nitude appeared  in  the  heavens,  and  this  was  looked 
upon  as  a  summoner  of  the  dying  prince.  He  still 
lingered  on,  and  he  was  lying  in  the  great  chamber 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  183 

of  his  father's  palace,  when,  says  Barnes,  "there  was 
celebrated  a  famous  opposition  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter, 
in  Aquarius  and  Leo,  the  abject  parts  and  places  of 
his  geniture."  This  occurred  a  brief  period  previous 
to  the  prince's  death,  and  when  that  lamentable  event 
occurred,  astrologers  accused  the  "  famous  opposi- 
tion "  of  being  "  no  small  cause  of  so  great  a  calam- 
ity." But  his  time  had  come.  The  manner  of  his 
Hfe  is  more  popularly  known  than  that  of  his  death, 
the  dignity  of  which  (singular  as  some  incidents  of  it 
were)  well  became  him.  The  writer  of  the  (contem- 
porary) chronicle,  printed  in  the  twenty-second  vol- 
ume of  the  ArchcBologia  represents  the  Prince  of 
Wales  as  resting  his  claim  for  mercy  at  the  hands  of 
the  Trinity,  on  the  ground  of  his  having  ever  honoured 
that  mysterious  Godhead  himself,  and  caused  it  to  be 
honoured  by  others.  His  death  occurring  on  the 
festival  of  the  Trinity  is  assumed  to  be  a  proof  that 
the  claim  of  the  prince  was  recognised !  His  fre- 
quent faintings,  consequent  on  hemorrhage,  did  not 
make  him  unmindful  of  the  duty  of  being  liberal  in 
his  gifts  to  all  of  his  house  and  heart ;  therewith,  wise 
of  counsel  to  his  son  Richard ;  and  at  once  firm  and 
merciful  toward  those  who  had  offended  against  the 
law  or  moral  right.  At  length,  the  Bishop  of  Bangor, 
witnessing  his  utter  prostration,  solemnly  announced 
to  him  that  death  was  undoubtedly  at  hand,  and 
asked  him  if  he  would,  needing  forgiveness,  ask 
pardon  of  God  and  of  all  whom  he  had  injured.  The 
prince  faintly  replied,  "  I  will."  "  And  the  bishop 
said,  *It  sufficeth  not  to  say  only,  "I  will;"  but 
when  you  have  power,  discharging  the  same  by  words, 
you  ought  to  ask  pardon.'     But  he  answered  nothing 


i84       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

else,  but  only  *  I  will.'  And  when  he  had  often  times 
done  this,  the  bishop  said,  *  I  suppose  some  evil  sprites 
to  be  here  present  that  let  his  tongue,  whereby  he 
cannot  express  his  mind  with  words ; '  and  taking  the 
sprinkle,  he  cast  holy  water  by  the  four  corners  of 
the  chamber  where  he  lay,  and  behold  suddenly  the 
prince,  with  joined  hands  and  eyes  lifted  up  to  heaven, 
said,  *  I  give  thee  thanks,  O  God,  for  all  thy  benefits  ; 
and  with  all  the  pains  of  my  soul,  I  humbly  beseech 
thy  mercy  to  give  me  remission  of  those  sins  which 
I  have  wickedly  committed  against  thee ;  and  of  all 
mortal  men  whom  willingly  or  ignorantly  I  have  of- 
fended, with  all  my  heart  I  desire  forgiveness.'  When 
he  had  spoken  these  words,  he  gave  up  the  ghost  to 
God,  as  we  believe  to  his  banquet,  whose  feast  he 
thus  worshipped  on  earth.  Who  departing,  all  hope 
of  Englishmen  departed,  for  he  being  present,  they 
feared  not  the  incursions  of  any  enemy  —  he  being 
present,  they  never  suffered  any  rebuke  for  that  they 
had  done  evil  or  forsaken  the  field."  The  writer 
finally  intimates  that  this  Prince  of  Wales  was  taken 
from  his  father  and  the  nation  (he  has  no  words  of 
pity  for  Richard,  his  son),  lest  people  should  trust  in 
him  more  than  they  did  in  the  Almighty,  on  whom 
he  calls  to  be  a  defender  of  England,  now  that  its  old 
defender  had  passed  away.  Never  before,  nor  since, 
died  there  a  Prince  of  Wales  so  loved  and  honoured 
of  his  fellow  men. 

A  decade  of  years  had  elapsed  since  his  great  expe- 
dition into  Spain,  and  on  the  8th  of  June,  1376,  in 
the  forty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  this  foremost  man  of 
all  his  time  peacefully,  yet  prematurely,  yielded  up 
his  brave  and  gentle  spirit.     His  virtues  have  been 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  185 

recorded  by  biographers  of  all  nations,  who  have 
been  unable  to  detect  a  flaw  in  a  character  judged 
from  the  point  of  view  of  his  times  and  the  morals 
of  those  times.  His  enemy,  the  King  of  France, 
had  funeral  services  celebrated  in  his  honour  at 
Paris.  Those  whom  he  had  vanquished  rendered 
justice  to  his  noble  qualities.  The  man  who  best 
knew  and  most  loved  him,  —  his  father,  the  king,  — 
mourned  for  him  just  one  year  and  thirteen  days, 
in  his  melancholy  retirement  at  Eltham,  and  then 
moving  to  Shene,  and  finding  no  solace  in  his  com- 
panion, AHce  Ferrers,  died  oppressed  by  this  great 
calamity,  and  the  sorrows  which  he  saw  would  be 
bom  of  it. 

The  books  are  numberless  which  render  an  account 
of  the  prince's  will,  his  funeral,  and  his  monument 
in  Canterbury  cathedral,  —  details  of  all  which  are 
widely  familiar.  I  will  confine  myself  to  noticing 
here  that  the  prince  bequeathed  an  estate  to  the 
cathedral  which  was  to  contain  his  bones,  which 
estate  is  only,  at  the  moment  I  write,  finally  losing 
its  trees  and  rurality,  and  being  converted  into 
streets.  I  allude  to  "Vauxhall  Gardens."  The 
manor  ground  of  King  John's  follower,  Fulke  de 
Breante,  on  which  Fulke  had  built  his  hall,  had  been 
the  property  of  the  Despensers,  and  had  ultimately 
fallen  to  the  Crown.  Edward  III.  had  conferred  it 
on  his  gallant  son,  whose  bequest  of  the  same  to 
Canterbury  cathedral  was  respected  by  Henry  VHI., 
and  it  is,  probably,  the  only  legacy  made  by  this 
Prince  of  Wales  which  remains  to  the  representatives 
of  the  original  legatees.  When  Edward  bequeathed 
the  manor  to  the  Church  for  the  good  of  his  immortal 


1 86       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

soul,  he  little  thought  what  quality  of  worship  would 
be  established  there  so  little  profitable  to  the  souls 
of  others. 

Of  Edward's  widow,  the  fair  Countess  of  Kent, 
there  remains  but  to  be  recorded  that  she  becomingly 
sorrowed  as  the  "relict  of  a  hero,"  and,  I  am 
sorry  to  say  it,  grew  exceedingly  corpulent ;  so 
"fat,"  indeed,  did  the  once  beautiful  widow  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  become,  that  motion  was  to  her 
a  rather  troublesome  process,  —  and  yet  good- will, 
or  force  of  circumstances,  occasionally  compelled  her 
to  move  more  nimbly  than  agreed  with  her  weight 
and  proportions. 

During  the  ten  years  that  she  survived  the  prince, 
she  resided  chiefly  at  Kennington,  in  the  Tower,  or 
at  the  Royal  Wardrobe,  in  Carter  Lane.  At  Ken- 
nington she  had  with  her  for  awhile  her  son  Richard, 
fourth  Prince  of  Wales,  to  whom  his  father  had  left 
for  guardian  that  dear  friend  of  his,  Simon  Burleigh, 
who  was,  as  may  be  remembered,  one  of  his  early 
class-fellows,  —  a  circumstance  which  did  not  save 
Simon's  head,  after  Richard  became  king. 

Young  prince  and  dowager  princess  were  at  Ken- 
nington, when  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  burst  in  upon 
them  from  his  palace  on  the  Strand,  —  whence  he 
had  escaped,  with  broken  shins,  to  implore  the  prin- 
cess to  intercede  for  him  with  the  citizens,  who, 
accusing  him  of  treason,  were  devastating  his  man- 
sion, and  seeking  to  slay  him.  The  citizens  loved 
the  princess,  and  out  of  pure  love  for  her,  as  they 
informed  her,  ceased  to  molest,  though  not  to  sus- 
pect, the  duke. 

After  her  son's  accession,  the  Princess  of  Wales 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  187 

again  saved  the  duke's  life,  then  threatened  by  that 
son's  favourites,  and  in  peril  from  the  king.  Between 
the  then  unpopular  king  and  the  then  popular  duke, 
she  again  mediated,  and  "  though  she  was  very  cor- 
pulent and  unfit  for  travel,"  says  Collins,  "she  made 
many  journeys  from  the  one  to  the  other,  and  in  the 
end  wrought  a  perfect  reconciliation  between  them." 

The  poor  lady  was  herself  in  imminent  peril,  when 
the  Wat  Tyler  rioters  broke  into  her  very  apartments 
in  the  Tower,  and  pursued  her  from  her  bed,  which 
they  destroyed,  down  to  the  water-side,  whither  she 
was  conveyed  by  her  ladies,  a  fainting  and  heavy 
burden,  to  a  covered  barge,  which  quickly  carried 
her  to  safer  quarters  in  the  Wardrobe  House,  in 
Carter  Lane. 

Then  poor  Joan  had  family  troubles  of  another 
sort.  There  was  her  son  by  her  first  husband.  Sir 
Thomas  Holland,  who  was  continually  committing 
some  offence  or  another,  for  which  he  deserved  to 
be  hanged,  and  to  save  him  from  which  penalty  his 
obese  mother  beset  her  other  son,  the  young  king, 
with  prayers.  At  length,  Richard's  half-brother 
stabbed  a  monk  —  and  though  it  was  only  a  monk, 
Joan  barely  succeeded  in  wresting  the  offender's 
pardon  from  the  king.  Subsequently,  when  Sir 
Thomas  was  accompanying  Richard  into  Scotland, 
his  servants  happened  to  quarrel  with  those  of  the 
Earl  of  Stafford;  and  the  arrogant  knight  showed 
how  thoroughly  he  agreed  with  his  own  domestics 
by  stabbing  the  earl  dead  in  the  streets  of  York. 
The  murderer  fled  to  the  sanctuary  at  Beverley,  and 
the  king  swore  that  nothing  should  save  him  from 
the  halter.     Joan  once  more  moved  her  tender  heart 


i88       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

and  mountain  of  flesh  to  the  north,  to  pray  for  mercy 
for  her  wretched  son,  and  out  of  pure  hopelessness 
of  succeeding,  fainted  and  died.  Whereupon,  the 
earl's  slayer  was  pardoned  ;  all  too  late  for  the  pur- 
pose of  Joan. 

For  such  a  moment,  however,  —  a  sudden  moment 
of  death,  —  provident  Joan  was  not  unprepared.  On 
having  recourse  to  her  papers,  all  her  desires  were 
found  fully  expressed,  and  were  complied  with ;  par- 
ticularly the  one  that  declared  that  she  the  Princess 
of  Wales,  Duchess  of  Cornwall  and  Aquitaine,  Count- 
ess of  Chester  and  Kent,  and  Lady  Warke,  wife  of 
Edward  the  Black  Prince,  desired  to  be  buried  close 
to  her  husband,  —  Sir  Thomas  Holland,  in  the  church 
of  the  Grey  Friars  at  Stamford !  And  there  she  was 
laid  down  to  her  last  sleep,  preferring  in  death  com- 
panionship with  the  old  knight  to  sharing  a  tomb  in 
Canterbury  with  her  second  husband,  Edward  of 
Woodstock ! 

Edward  of  Woodstock  left  two  natural  sons,  Sir 
John  de  Sounder,  of  whom  nothing  more  is  known, 
and  Sir  Roger  de  Claringdon,  or  Clarendon,  who  was 
beheaded  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  for  asserting 
that  his  half-brother,  Richard  H.,  was  still  alive. 
Sir  Roger  bore  his  father's  badge  in  his  arms,  —  a 
shield  or,  on  a  bend  sable,  three  ostrich  feathers 
argent,  passing  through  as  many  scrolls  of  the  first, 
with  the  prince's  motto,  Ich  dien.  The  birthplace 
of  Roger  was  Clarendon,  near  Salisbury ;  and  — 
proud  conjecture  for  the  Smiths  —  Gwillim  supposes 
this  son  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  have  been  the 
founder  of  the  family  of  that  name  in  Essex !  In 
1 64 1,  a  cornet  of  horse,  of  the  name  of  Clarendon, 


EDWARD  OF  WOODSTOCK  189 

settled  in  Ireland,  and  his  descendants,  toward  the 
end  of  the  last  century,  declared  that  the  cornet, 
according  to  family  tradition,  was  a  descendant  of 
a  son  of  the  Black  Prince.  This  last  circumstance 
is  recorded  by  "  Sylvanus  Urban "  (vol.  liii.  part  2, 
p.  724),  and,  if  it  be  well  founded,  then  it  is  only  in 
the  descendants  of  the  cornet  that  can  now  be  traced 
the  male  blood  of  the  hero  who  was  the  son  and 
father  of  a  king,  yet  never  king  himself. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RICHARD    OF    BORDEAUX 
Bom  1367.     Died  (King)  1399 

Richard  of  Bordeaux,  the  son  of  English  par- 
ents, was  a  foreigner  by  accident  of  birth  —  born, 
indeed,  within  the  dominions  of  his  grandfather,  but 
exposed  to  foreign  influences.  Among  the  Proven- 
cals he  acquired  Provencal  tastes,  was  addicted  to 
the  unprofitable  avocation  of  "lotus-eating,"  had  a 
soul  for  song  and  a  love  for  music,  and  was  natu- 
rally indolent.  There  was  little  in  him  of  his  spirited 
father,  much  of  his  blithe  and  easy  mother,  Joan  — 
a  mother  whom  he  dearly  loved  —  and  whose  sons 
by  her  first  marriage,  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
defects  in  the  character  of  their  royal  half-brother, 
very  materially  helped  him  toward  his  ruin. 

Nevertheless,  his  birth  gave  rise  to  unusual  rejoic- 
ing. The  prince,  his  father,  was  about  to  start  on 
his  expedition  in  aid  of  Don  Pedro,  when  at  Bor- 
deaux, Joan,  "his  dear  consort,  fell  in  travail  on 
the  day  of  the  Three  Kings  of  Coin,  commonly 
called  the  Epiphany,  being  Wednesday,  the  6th  of 
January,  1367."  Hardy nge  asserts  that  gladness 
accompanied  this  birth  because  of  the  accredited 
worthiness  of  the  babe.  The  expression  perhaps 
conveys   a   slur   upon   the   weakness    of    the   elder 

190 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  191 

and  short-lived  brother,  Edward  of  Angouleme.  Of 
Richard's  birth,  says  Fabyan,  "  some  writers  tell 
wonders,  the  which  I  will  pass  by.'*  Three  magi 
were  present  thereat,  writes  the  old  chronicler,  Will- 
iam Thome,  meaning  thereby  three  kings  —  of  Spain, 
Navarre,  and  Portugal  —  "  which  kings  gave  precious 
gifts  to  the  child."  But  Pedro  of  Spain  was  on  that 
day  at  Bayonne.  Nevertheless  (as  I  have  previously 
stated),  James,  King  of  Majorca,  Charles,  King  of 
Navarre,  and  Richard,  Bishop  of  Agen,  were  at  the 
court  of  the  Black  Prince  in  Bordeaux ;  and  the  first 
and  last  of  these  stood  as  godfathers  to  the  child, 
when  on  the  Friday  after  his  birth  he  was  carried 
in  state  to  the  cathedral  of  St.  Andrew,  and  there 
christened  by  the  archbishop,  who  conferred  on  the 
unconscious  prince  the  name  of  his  ecclesiastical  god- 
father, the  Bishop  of  Agen. 

At  this  time  Froissart,  the  chronicler,  was  in  the 
city,  and  was  sitting  at  dinner  at  noonday  —  the 
fashionable  hour  —  when  Sir  Richard  Pontcharden 
called  on  the  gossiping  canon,  and  informed  him  how 
the  Princess  Joan  had  **got  her  bed."  Now  Sir 
Richard  was  a  valiant  knight,  with  a  weak-minded 
belief  in  astrology ;  and  from  some  astrological  book 
he  had  worked  out  a  problem  which  had  brought 
him  to  the  conclusion  that  the  little  prince  born  that 
day,  the  younger  son  of  a  king's  son,  would  reach 
the  crown,  which  his  father  should  not  wear,  and  yet 
be  violently  deprived  of  it,  the  same  being  seized  by 
a  prince  of  the  house  of  Lancaster.  Prophecies  of 
this  sort  Froissart  had  heard  before.  The  very 
maids  of  honour,  and  knights  fond  of  gossiping  with 
them,  had  talked  of  these  things,  in  his  hearing,  at 


192       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  Black  Prince's  manor  of  Berkham  stead.  What 
the  chronicler  thought  of  them  at  the  time,  he  does 
not  say.  The  ambition  of  the  Black  Prince's  second 
brother,  John  of  Gaunt,  may  have  been  a  basis  on 
which  such  a  prophecy  may  have  seemed  to  him  to 
be  justifiably  built.  However  this  rnay  be,  he  lived 
to  see  and  to  register  its  realisation ;  but  he  pleas- 
antly remarks  that  the  prophets  probably  **knew 
nothing  for  certain  when  they  made  their  vaticina- 
tion." 

The  birth  on  "Twelfth  Day,"  the  Epiphany  or 
the  festival  of  the  "  Three  Kings  of  Cologne,"  was  a 
text  on  which  ecclesiastics  and  others  made  sundry 
quaint  comments  during  Richard's  life.  We  shall 
find  a  bishop  making  especial  reference  thereto  when 
Richard  himself  was  first  introduced  to  Parliament 
as  Prince  of  Wales.  Meanwhile,  the  Sunday  after 
his  birth,  his  father  set  out  on  the  last  of  his  mem- 
orable expeditions,  and  the  young  prince  was  left  to 
the  care  of  his  mother.  When  that  expedition  was 
at  an  end,  Edward  of  Woodstock  was  too  occupied 
or  too  ill  to  superintend  the  education,  or  have  much 
of  the  society,  of  little  Richard  of  Bordeaux.  The 
latter,  with  his  elder  brother,  Edward  of  Angouleme, 
was  left  to  the  care  of  Joan,  a  loving  but  an  easy 
mother.  For  half  a  dozen  years  the  boys  knew  each 
other ;  at  the  end  of  that  time,  death  called  away  the 
elder,  and  Richard  was  thenceforth  sole  heir  of  his 
father.  To  that  father,  whose  own  death,  as  is 
observed  by  some  monkish  annalist,  "  bore  away  all 
the  sickemess  of  thys  lande,"  no  resemblance  could 
be  traced  in  him.  He  lacked  his  father's  energy  of 
character,  his  bravery,  and  his  occasional  sternness 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  193 

of  resolution.  On  the  other  hand,  he  inherited  the 
beauty  and  the  indolent  disposition  of  his  dear  mother, 
Joan ;  and  therewith,  says  Grafton,  **  he  was  over- 
much given  to  rest  and  quietness,  and  loved  little 
deeds  of  alms  and  martial  prowess ;  and  for  that  he 
was  young,  he  was  most  ruled  by  young  counsel." 

When  the  father  of  Richard  was  dying  of  a  disease 
which  had  so  wasted  him  that  the  double  infirmity ' 
had,  for  five  years,  nearly  wrested  all  shadow  of 
strength  from  him,  he  called  "hys  sonne  unto  hym 
(although  but  a  little  one),  he  commanded  hym,  upon 
payne  of  hys  curse,  he  sholde  never  chaunge  or  taike 
away  the  gyftes  that  he  atte  hys  deathe  gave  unto  hys 
servantes."  By  this  death-bed  Richard  sate,  and  wit- 
nessed his  father's  piety,  and  heard  of  his  liberality 
to  his  followers  and  friends  of  every  degree ;  and  be- 
held a  sight  that  must  have  been  unusual  even  in 
those  days  —  namely,  the  free  access  which  the  dying 
Prince  of  Wales  gave  to  all  who  cared  to  approach 
to  make  a  request,  or  see  how  a  prince  could  die. 
"  For,"  says  the  author  of  the  contemporary  manu- 
script, printed  in  the  Archceologia,  "the  prince 
had  commanded  that  hys  doore  sholde  be  shutt  to 
none,  nor  to  the  leaste  boy "  (page).  He  was  the 
only  Prince  of  Wales  who  may  be  said  to  have  died 
in  public ;  and  as  young  Richard  was  with  him  at 
the  last,  his  feeble  spirit  must  have  been  startled 
when  his  father  was  unable  to  reply  to  the  exhorta- 
tions of  the  Bishop  of  Bangor,  till  the  prelate  rec- 
ognising the  presence  of  evil  spirits,  plentifully 
besprinkled  the  dying  prince  with  holy  water,  drove 
away  the  demons,  and  unloosened  the  tongue  of  the 

ArchcBologiay  vol.  xxii.,  p.  228. 


194       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

moribund  Edward,  so  that  he  burst  forth  into  confes- 
sion and  prayer,  such  as  might  have  edified  the  mind 
of  the  son  for  whom  he  had  sent,  if  that  weak  mind 
had  not  been  terrified  by  the  exorcism. 

Stricken  as  old  King  Edward  was  by  the  premature 
death  of  his  eldest  son,  he  lost  little  time  in  advanc- 
ing Richard  to  some  part,  at  least,  of  the  greatness 
enjoyed  by  his  father.  Accordingly,  in  the  jubilee 
year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  on  the  20th  day 
of  November,  at  Havering-at-Bower,  that  monarch 
assigned  to  his  little  grandson  Richard  the  princi- 
pality, duchy,  earldom,  titles,  and  privileges  so  lately 
held  by  his  own  lamented  son,  Edward  of  Woodstock. 
The  deed  which  invests  the  young  prince  with  a 
greatness  and  profits  he  never,  in  truth,  enjoyed,  is 
a  long  document,  very  mimite  in  its  details,  expHcit 
in  its  signification,  and  replete  with  an  iteration  which 
would  exact  from  the  weary  reader  an  expletive  as 
strong  as  ever  was  forced  from  patient  hearer  averse 
to  tautology.  The  document  may  be  read  at  length 
in  the  Additional  Manuscripts,  No.  15,663,  in  the 
British  Museum,  where  it  occupies  nine  large  folio 
sheets.  Some  of  its  provisions,  however,  merit  notice 
here.  It  confers  on  Richard  of  Bordeaux  every  pos- 
session, title,  right,  and  so  forth,  which  his  illustrious 
father  held  —  making  exception,  however,  of  that  to 
which  he  was  subsequently  to  succeed  by  reversion, 
namely,  "the  third  part  of  the  principality,  duchy, 
and  earldom,  and  of  the  lands  and  tenements  which 
Joan,  who  was  the  wife  of  the  late  prince,  mother  of 
the  said  Richard,  holds  in  dower,  since  the  death  of 
the  same  late  prince,  by  our  assignment.*'  Joan's 
"thirds"   are   especially  protected    throughout   the 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  195 

lengthy  document.  In  conferring  on  the  youthful 
Richard  the  principality,  duchy,  and  earldom,  the 
prizage  and  customs  of  wines,  the  profits  of  the  ports 
in  Wales,  and  in  some  other  localities,  a  record  is 
also  made  of  the  sources  whence  the  prince  may 
draw  his  revenues,  including  honours,  lordships, 
castles,  cities,  boroughs,  towns,  manors,  members, 
hamlets,  lands,  tenements,  knights'  fees,  advowsons 
of  cathedrals,  churches,  internal  as  well  as  others, 
abbeys,  priories,  chapels,  and  other  religious  houses, 
with  mines,  royalties,  liberties,  free  customs,  prizes, 
and  exercise  of  all  justice  of  chancellorships,  hom- 
ages, services,  rents,  profits,  meadows,  feedings,  pas- 
tures, wreck  of  the  sea,  fisheries,  moors,  marshes, 
turbaries,  forests,  chaces,  parks,  woods,  warrens, 
hundreds,  commons,  raglories,  woodwards,  constabu- 
laries, bailiwicks,  forestaries,  cormatories,  reversions 
of  tenants,  fairs,  markets,  wards,  marriages,  reliefs, 
escheats,  etc.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  omitted  from 
which  the  little  prince  could  derive  profit ;  and  of 
his  Welsh  tenants,  it  is  said  that  their  service  is  due 
to  him,  "as  well  free  as  native"  —  a  very  significant 
distinction. 

The  document,  when  referring  to  "  wreck  of  the 
sea,"  as  connected  with  Cornwall,  is  more  explicit 
than  when  deaUng  with  the  same  delicate  subject 
with  regard  to  the  principality.  After  granting  every- 
thing in  the  duchy  to  Richard,  it  adds  thereto  all 
"wreck  of  the  sea,"  as  well  of  whale  and  sturgeon, 
and  other  fishes  which  belong  to  us  by  reason  of  our 
prerogative,  as  other  things  whatsoever  to  wreck  of 
the  sea  in  any  wise  belonging  in  the  whole  county 
of  Cornwall.     So  that  if  the  Cornish  people,  gentry 


196       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

and  clergy  included,  became  "wreckers,"  and  took  as 
their  own  whatever  the  sea  cast  at  their  feet  to  be 
kept  for  the  rightful  owners,  they  derived  the  evil 
practice  from  the  example  set  them  by  their  princes. 

Justice,  royal  jurisdiction,  and  coinage  are  among 
the  further  privileges  granted  to  the  new  Prince  of 
Wales,  with  some  other  profitable  matters  to  which 
the  king  is  moved  by  his  especial  love  for  the  only 
child  of  his  noble  and  favourite  son.  Finally,  the 
huge  document  is  witnessed  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  Earls  of  Cam- 
bridge, Arundel,  Warwick,  Suffolk,  and  Salisbury, 
Henry  de  Percy,  John  de  Nevyll,  the  king's  chamber- 
lain, Roger  de  Beauchamp,  and  his  steward  of  the 
household,  John  de  Ipre.  Finally,  the  grant  is  sub- 
scribed "By  the  king  himself." 

The  popular  joy  rose  high  at  this  advancement  of 
the  young  prince.  He  was  loved  not  only  for  his 
own,  but  for  his  father's  sake.  The  public  expecta- 
tion looked  to  him  for  a  revival  of  a  career  of  honour 
and  glory.  There  was  even  hope  that  the  son  might 
perhaps  exceed  the  brilliancy  of  the  father,  enjoying, 
as  he  surely  would,  the  privileges  and  opportunities 
of  a  monarch.  The  hope  was  fallacious,  as  such  hope 
generally  is.  The  sons  of  righteous  Aaron  were  un- 
worthy of  their  sire,  and  the  children  of  perfect  Samuel 
fell  off  into  sin. 

The  early  nomination  of  Richard  to  the  principality 
was  a  response  to  an  injunction  of  the  Black  Prince 
to  his  father,  not  to  neglect  to  inaugurate  Richard  as 
Prince  of  Wales  with  all  possible  speed,  commending 
him  thereby  to  the  care  of  the  nation.  When  the 
creation  took  place,  according  to  the  decree  of  Haver- 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  197 

ing-at-Bower,  in  November,  1376,  Richard  had  not 
completed  his  tenth  year ;  and  in  addition  to  asking 
for  him  the  love  of  the  English  people,  Edward  sought 
to  defend  his  young  grandson  against  the  malice  of 
his  uncles,  John  of  Gaunt,  Edmund,  Earl  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  Thomas  of  Woodstock.  To  these  broth- 
ers, King  Edward  declared  that  Richard  was  the  only 
lawful  heir  to  the  throne,  and  he  exacted  from  them 
a  solemn  oath  of  allegiance,  which  was  subsequently 
violated  with  more  than  ordinary  alacrity. 

A  more  public  manifestation  of  the  position  to 
which  the  boy-prince  had  been  advanced  was  made 
on  the  succeeding  Christmas  Day,  when  a  grand  ban- 
quet in  his  honour  was  given  by  the  king,  his  grand- 
father, at  which  royal  feast  young  Richard  was  seated 
at  the  king's  table  next  to  his  grandsire,  and  above 
all  the  sons  of  Edward  III.  The  advancement  of 
Richard  of  Bordeaux  gave  general  satisfaction  to  the 
people  of  England  who  had  loved  his  father,  and  who 
now  honoured  the  memory  of  Edward  of  Woodstock. 

The  citizens  of  London  were  especially  active  and 
ostentatious  in  manifesting  their  affection,  prodigal  in 
their  liberality,  and  servile,  not  to  say  abject,  in  their 
flattery.  On  a  Sunday  evening  of  February,  1377, 
just  previous  to  Candlemas,  not  less  than  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  "  prime  citizens,"  as  the  annalists  call 
them,  disguised  themselves  as  mummers,  but  in  splen- 
did costume,  and  mounting  horse,  rode  from  the  city 
to  congratulate  the  prince.  Bands  of  music,  including 
every  variety  of  minstrelsy,  accompanied  them,  and 
the  night  being  dark,  the  cavalcade  was  illuminated 
by  numberless  torchlights  of  wax,  which  made  a  gay 
spectacle  as  they  danced  along,  the  music  ringing  the 


198        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

while,  and  the  citizen  horsemen  gaily  caracolling  from 
Newgate,  through  Cheapside,  over  London  Bridge 
to  Kennington.  At  the  royal  manor-house  there 
they  were  heartily  received  by  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  his  portly  mother,  Joan.  Accompanying  these 
were  Richard's  nearest  male  relatives ;  and  in  attend- 
ance on  this  illustrious  group  were  the  Earls  of  Staf- 
ford, Warwick,  and  Suffolk,  a  gallant  assembly  of 
lords  and  a  gay  crowd  of  mirthful  ladies.  The  torch- 
light procession  defiled  before  this  illustrious  body  of 
spectators,  in  three  divisions.  In  the  first,  four  dozen 
citizens  in  the  guise  of  esquires  in  scarlet  coats  and 
gowns  of  "say  or  sendal,"  their  features  concealed 
beneath  comely  vizards,  rode  forward  in  couples. 
These  were  followed  by  an  equal  number  of  mummer 
knights,  in  a  livery  resembling  that  of  the  esquires. 
Then  proudly  rode  by  a  mimic  emperor,  whose  mag- 
nificent attire  was  only  exceeded  by  that  of  a  pseudo- 
Pope,  who  rode  at  due  interval  after  the  Kaiser.  A 
couple  of  dozen  of  pretended  cardinals  supported  the 
feigned  dignity  of  the  fictitious  pontiff ;  and  the  horse- 
men behind  their  Eminences  were  strangely  attired, 
and  wore  black  visors,  so  as  to  pass,  for  the  nonce,  as 
ambassadors  from  foreign  potentates. 

The  worthy  and  respectable  mummers  having 
finished  their  caracolling,  dismounted,  and  were  then 
ushered  into  the  great  hall.  When  fairly  marshalled 
there,  the  prince  and  his  mother  entered  from  an 
inner  chamber,  and  received  the  sincere  salutations 
and  congratulations  of  the  unreal  squires,  knights- 
cardinals.  Kaiser,  Pope,  and  foreign  envoys.  Then 
ensued  a  strange  but  characteristic  scene.  The 
primest  of  the  prime  citizens  flung  a  pair  of  dice 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  199 

on  the  table  as  a  challenge  to  the  prince  to  play. 
Richard  accepted  the  challenge,  and  ran  no  risk 
thereby  of  losing  a  single  noble,  for  the  citizens  had 
so  prepared  the  dice  that  the  prince  should  always 
win,  whether  he  cast  against  the  London  mummers 
or  they  at  him.  In  this  way  a  luck  as  pretended  as 
themselves  emptied  the  citizens'  purses  of  large  sums 
of  gold,  which  passed  to  the  capacious  pockets  of  the 
delighted  Prince  of  Wales.  The  prime  cockneys  then 
placed  on  the  table  a  bowl,  a  cup,  and  a  ring,  gold  and 
jewelled,  and  set  these  to  the  prince,  who  wonderfully 
won  them  all  at  three  casts !  Such  result  was,  of 
course,  held  to  be  typical  of  his  future  fortune,  which, 
however,  proved  to  be  of  another  quality.  Mean- 
while, the  never-sufficiently-to-be-gratified-by-losing 
Londoners  set  money  and  jewels  to  the  dowager 
Princess  of  Wales,  the  royal  dukes  and  earls,  the 
lords  of  lower  degree,  and  the  laughing  and  eager 
ladies.  And,  of  course,  every  throw  brought  a  costly 
stake  to  the  residents  in  the  manor-palace  at  Ken- 
nington,  till  the  joyfully  plucked  citizens  had  lost  their 
all.  The  royal  hosts  could  not  do  less  than  regale 
those  who  had  exhibited  such  a  loyal  share  of  ill-luck 
achieved  for  the  purpose ;  and  accordingly  the  chron- 
iclers have  ecstatically  and  lengthily  narrated  the  said 
regaling,  lauding  the  splendour  of  the  entertainment, 
the  exquisiteness  of  the  music,  the  grace  of  the  little 
prince,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  various  dancers, 
whether  they  were  the  noble  lords  and  ladies  who 
moved  statelily  by  themselves  or  the  citizens  who 
tripped  it,  in  hearty  fashion  at  least,  also  by  them- 
selves, in  another  part  of  the  hall.  The  revelry  was 
concluded  by  a  gorgeous  banquet  of  wines  and  spices. 


200       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

with  which  being  well  warmed,  the  mummers  took 
leave,  and  facing  the  fierce  February  night,  rode 
jollily  home,  hot  with  loyalty  to  a  prince  who  was 
especially  called  the  Londoners'  Prince,  —  but  at 
whose  pulling  down  they  danced  as  vigorously  as 
they  had  ever  done  in  his  honour  at  Kennington. 

Such  was  the  meeting  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  with 
the  representatives  of  the  Londoners  generally ;  and 
let  us  render  justice  to  the  latter.  If  there  was 
much  folly  in  the  manner  of  their  exhibiting  their 
loyalty,  there  was  abounding  temporary  sincerity  of 
feeling  beneath  it.  So  attached  were  they  to  the 
helpless  Prince  of  Wales,  that  when,  in  the  summer 
that  followed  this  winter-mummery,  the  old  Lion 
of  England,  King  Edward,  lay  ill  of  that  sickness 
which  ended  with  his  death,  they  despatched  a  body 
of  aldermen,  with  John  Philpott  for  their  mouth- 
piece, to  Richard  and  his  mother,  who  were  then 
abiding  the  course  of  events  at  Kingston  in  Surrey. 
It  must  surely  have  been  a  singular  incident,  even  in 
those  unscrupulous  times,  —  the  municipality  of  Lon- 
don standing  before  the  Prince  of  Wales  while  the 
sovereign  was  alive,  and  daintily  intimating  that 
the  latter  could  not  long  remain  so,  and  that  God 
in  his  mercy  was  about  to  summon  him  away,  be- 
speaking for  themselves  and  the  city  the  prince's 
favour,  and  promising  in  return  such  an  allegiance 
as  might  be  testified,  need  requiring  it,  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  their  goods  and  lives.  ^  The  Prince  of  Wales, 
tutored  by  his  mother  and  other  friends,  rendered  an 
appropriate  answer,  and  the  citizens  testified  their 
uncivil  alacrity  at  the  prospect  of  soon  having  him 

'  Holinshed,  iii.  415. 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  201 

for  king.  This  homage  to  the  rising  sun  having  been 
so  fully  performed  at  Kingston,  the  citizens  rode 
back  to  town,  as  complacently  as  if  they  had  failed 
in  no  decent  duty  owing  to  old  Edward. 

John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  had  recognised 
the  Prince  of  Wales  as  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne, 
with  as  much  seeming  alacrity  as  the  citizens  had 
shown;  but  he  sought  to  make  himself  the  next 
heir  after  Richard,  by  proposing  to  Parliament  that 
the  succession  should  be  in  the  male  line  only.  The 
Parliament  rejected  a  proposal  which  annihilated  the 
rights  of  the  daughter  of  Lancaster's  elder  brother 
Lionel ;  and  that  body  further  requested  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  should  be  at  once  introduced  to 
the  legislative  assembly  as  heir  apparent  to  the 
crown.  The  love  of  the  Commons  for  the  young 
prince  had  been  testified  by  their  previous  petition 
that  Richard  should  be  declared  Prince  of  Wales ; 
but  it  was  answered  that  such  a  creation  belonged 
not  to  Parliament,  but  to  the  king  only,  who  ordi- 
narily exercised  such  a  prerogative  on  some  high 
festival. 

The  request  of  the  Parliament  with  regard  to  the 
introduction  of  Richard  as  heir  apparent  was  com- 
plied with  on  the  Tuesday  after  the  festival  of  the 
Conversion  of  St.  Paul.  In  the  midst  of  a  splendid 
gathering  young  Richard  sate,  the  representative  of 
his  grandfather,  then  too  sick  to  attend.  Of  all  the 
introductions  of  a  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  Parliament 
of  the  realm,  this  was  the  most  remarkable.  When 
the  preliminary  formalities  had  been  gone  through, 
the  youthful  prince  expressed  his  will  and  command 
that  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  Chancellor  of  Eng- 


202       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

land,  should  address  the  assembly,  and  explain  the 
cause  for  the  summons  which  had  called  them  to- 
gether. For  a  full  report  of  the  quaint  Norman 
French  speech  delivered  by  the  prelate,  I  refer  my 
readers  to  the  "  Rolls  of  Parliament "  (vol.  ii.  p.  361) ; 
but  there  are  some  passages  in  it,  especially  those 
referring  directly  to  the  prince,  which  merit  citation, 
because  of  their  singularity,  or  because  they  other- 
wise show  the  taste,  or  the  want  of  taste,  of  the 
parliamentary  orators  of  the  period. 

After  quoting  St.  Paul  to  prove  that  the  wise  must 
needs  occasionally  lend  ear  to  fools,  the  bishop  added  : 
"And,  albeit  you  are  wise  men,  and  I  but  a  fool,  yet 
do  I  give  you  credit  for  willingness  to  hear  me; 
seeing  that  you  will  have  joy  therein,  inasmuch  as, 
according  to  the  Scriptures,  every  messenger  bearing 
good  news  ought  to  be  always  welcome  —  and  I  am 
a  messenger  bringing  pleasant  tidings,  and  therefore 
shall,  doubtless,  be  welcome  to  you." 

The  pleasant  news  thus  indicated  referred  to  the 
health  of  the  king,  which  was  said  to  have  improved, 
as  was  to  be  expected  of  a  monarch  whom  for  virtues, 
and  zeal,  and  love  of  the  lord,  the  Bishop  of  St. 
David's  compared  with  St.  Paul,  not  altogether  to 
the  advantage  of  the  apostle.  "  See  now,  my  lords," 
said  the  prelate,  "was  there  ever  Christian  king  or 
other  lord  in  the  world  who  possessed  so  noble  and 
so  gracious  a  lady  for  a  wife,  or  such  sons  as  our 
lord  the  king  has  had,  princes,  dukes,  and  the  rest 
of  them  ?  All  Christendom  has  heard  of  them  ;  and 
by  them  has  the  realm  of  England  been  nobly  im- 
proved, honoured,  and  enriched,  more  than  it  has 
ever  been  in  the  time  of  any  other  prince.     And  now, 


RICHARD  OF  BORDEAUX  203 

God  be  praised  for  it,  our  lord  the  king  may  see 
here  the  son  of  his  son  !  Whereby  it  is  evident  that 
he  enjoys  the  grace  and  favour  of  God,  at  which  we 
ought  to  experience  great  joy  and  gladness." 

The  prelate,  proceeding  to  show  that  the  king  was 
a  vessel  of  grace  by  the  election  of  God,  and  that  if 
they  would  drink  of  the  rich  contents  of  such  vessel, 
they  must  exercise  toward  him  faithful  service,  as 
members  of  a  body  of  which  he  was  the  head,  then 
remarked  that,  as  the  Lord  loved  King  Edward,  so 
did  that  king  love  them ;  '*  for  you  see,  my  lords, 
how  that  since  God  had  executed  his  will  on  Edward, 
the  late  Prince  of  Wales,  you  have  continually  de- 
sired the  honour  and  increase  of  my  lord  the  Prince 
Richard,  his  son  and  heir,  who  is  here  present,  whom 
may  God  save.  And  our  lord  the  king  has  fulfilled 
your  desires  by  giving  and  granting  as  much  as  in 
him  lay  to  the  prince,  the  principality  of  Wales,  the 
dukedom  of  Cornwall,  and  the  county  of  Chester. 
The  king  has  also  sent  the  prince  to  this  Parliament, 
as  his  lieutenant,  that  here  in  his  presence  you  may 
have  comfort  and  rejoice  in  him,  even  according  to 
the  manner  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures :  *  This  is  my 
beloved  son ;  this  is  the  desired  of  all  nations.*  To 
this  young  prince  you  are  bound  to  pay  honour  and 
reverence,  as  to  your  lord,  the  heir  apparent  of  the 
kingdom.  And,"  added  the  cunning  prelate,  "you 
may  honour  him  after  the  manner  of  the  pagans.  I 
mean  those  three  Kings  of  Cologne  who  honoured 
the  Son  of  God,  by  presenting  to  him  rich  gifts 
of  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh."  On  this  text  of 
tribute-paying  the  bishop  dwelt  for  a  considerable 
time,  urging  loyalty  and  liberality,  and  much  grati- 


204       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

tude ;  since  now,  in  beholding  the  prince  in  Parlia- 
ment, they  might  exclaim,  as  Simon  did  at  beholding 
the  Saviour  in  the  Temple,  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thou 
thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  thy  salvation." 

"  And  so,"  resumed  the  diocesan  of  St.  David's, 
"may  you  embrace  your  noble  king  with  the  arms 
of  your  perfect  love ;  since  he  has  sent  you  him 
whom  you  longed  for.  And  after  the  king,  embrace 
with  love  as  perfect  my  lord  the  prince  who  is  here 
present  (God  save  him  ! ),  whom  you  so  ardently 
desired,  and  at  now  seeing  whom  you  may  repeat 
your  Nunc  dimittis^  for  there  is  through  him  that 
peace  over  Israel  which  the  Scriptures  name  —  Israel 
being  the  heritage  of  God,  and  that  heritage  being 
also  —  England!  For  in  good  truth,  I  beHeve  that 
God  would  never  have  honoured  this  country  by 
victories  such  as  had  given  glory  to  Israel,  had  he 
not  intended  it  for  his  heritage  also ! " 

Within  five  months  after  this  speech  was  delivered 
by  the  Chancellor-Bishop  Houghton,  King  Edward 
died, — on  the  21st  of  June,  1377,  in  the  sixty-fifth 
year  of  his  age,  and  the  fifty-first  of  his  reign. 
Richard  had  then  been  Prince  of  Wales  just  seven 
months, — a  period  which  he  passed  in  retirement 
with  his  mother,  undergoing  no  preparatory  training 
for  the  high  position  and  the  heavy  responsibilities 
which  awaited  him. 


Book  II. 

Princes  of  Wales  of  the  Houses  of 
Lancaster  and  York 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HENRY   OF    MONMOUTH    (LANCASTER) 
Bom  1387.     Died  1422 

Richard  II.  was  twenty  years  of  age,  and  had 
been  on  the  throne  half  that  period,  when  in  August, 
1387,  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Derby  were  residing 
at  Monmouth  Castle.  The  former  was  one  year 
older  than  the  king,  the  latter  was  only  sixteen.  In 
the  month  and  year  indicated  above,  the  lady  gave 
birth  to  a  son,  named,  like  his  father,  the  earl  — 
Henry.  Father  and  son  were  alike  subjects,  the 
earl  being  the  son  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster ;  but  father  and  son  became  successive  Kings 
of  England,  although  Mary  Bohun,  the  mother  of 
Henry  of  Monmouth,  did  not  become  queen,  dying 
when  her  son  was  seven  years  old,  five  years  previous 
to  the  accession  of  her  husband  as  Henry  IV. 

The  birth  of  a  subject  was  not  of  national  interest, 
but  that  of  an  heir  to  the  great  Duke  of  Lancaster, 
who  was  known  to  court  the  throne  which  his  son 
ascended,  was  of  great  local  and  family  interest.  In 
the  villages  in  the  vicinity  of  Monmouth,  the  event 
was  felt  to  be  of  importance.  A  courier  killed  his 
horse,  or  himself,  in  his  eagerness  to  bear  the  tidings 
from  Monmouth  to  Goodrich ;  and  when  the  father 
of  the  child,  the  restless  Henry  of  Bolingbroke,  was 

207 


2o8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

hastening  homeward,  hurried  thither  by  the  news, 
the  ferryman  of  Goodrich  congratulated  him  on  the 
fact  of  his  being  father  of  a  noble  prince. 

To  these  traditions  is  to  be  added  that  which 
assigns  to  the  Countess  of  Salisbury  the  office  of 
nurse  to  young  Harry  of  Monmouth,  and  another 
which  points  to  Courtfield,  an  adjacent  village,  as  a 
place  of  residence  at  which  the  noble  foster-mother 
reared,  for  a  time,  the  future  conqueror  at  Agincourt. 
The  usual  local  proof  of  these  alleged  facts  was  long 
maintained  in  the  neighbourhood,  in  the  shape  of  the 
cradle  in  which  this  notable  child  was,  probably, 
not  rocked.  This  evidence  has  disappeared,  but 
tradition  cleaves  closely  to  the  old  story,  which  is, 
perhaps,  not  without  some  foundation. 

Wardrobe  accounts  are  of  a  less  questionable  qual- 
ity, however,  than  legends,  and  in  that  of  the  mother 
of  Henry  of  Monmouth  we  find  a  less  illustrious 
nurse  set  down  for  him  than  the  Countess  of  Salis- 
bury —  namely,  Johanna  Waring.  It  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  the  good  fashions  of  these  olden  times 
for  kings  to  have  loving  and  grateful  memories  of 
their  nurses.  I  have  cited  cases  in  point,  when 
treating  of  Edward  of  Caernarvon ;  and  when  this 
Henry  of  Monmouth  ascended  the  throne,  one  of  his 
first  acts  was  to  settle  the  liberal  annuity  of  ;£20  on 
Johanna,  "  in  consideration  of  good  services  done  to 
him  in  former  days." 

Again,  although  the  character  of  the  father  of 
Henry  of  Monmouth  has  suffered  some  disparage- 
ment, there  was  a  fashion  observed  by  him  which 
might  be  readopted  with  profit  to  each  party  there- 
with concerned.     Annually,  on  the  Holy  Thursday 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  209 

of  Passion  Week,  it  was  his  custom  to  clothe  as  many- 
poor  persons  as  equalled  the  number  of  years  he  had 
attained  on  his  preceding  birthday.  This  was  a  good 
example  to  his  son ;  and  throughout  the  period  of 
the  early  Princes  of  Wales  those  young  gentlemen 
had  one  other  example  set  them  which  might  be 
beneficially,  and  indeed  universally  followed.  I  allude 
to  several  entries  in  the  wardrobe  accounts  of  that 
time,  which  show  that  whenever  the  royal  family,  or 
single  members  of  it,  refrained  from  attending  divine 
worship,  they,  in  a  certain  measure,  compensated  for 
the  neglect  by  forwarding  a  generous  pecuniary  gift 
to  the  poor. 

Similar  documents  connected  with  the  household 
affairs  of  Bolingbroke  and  his  wife  enable  us  to  just 
glance  or  guess  at  the  whereabout  of  the  young  lord 
and  the  brothers  and  sisters  who  were  bom  after  him. 
At  these  births,  £,2  was  the  handsome  fee  of  the 
wise  woman  who  officiated.  The  family  of  Boling- 
broke and  Mary  Bohun  consisted,  at  the  death  of 
the  countess,  of  four  sons  and  two  daughters. 

Henry  of  Monmouth's  brothers  were  Thomas 
Plantagenet,  Duke  of  Clarence ;  John,  Duke  of  Bed- 
ford; and  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester.  These 
three  dukes  were  married,  but  left  no  issue.  The 
sisters  of  Henry  were  Blanche  and  Philippa,  married 
respectively  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  the  King 
of  Denmark.  Both  died  childless.  Jacqueline,  the 
widow  of  John,  became  the  wife  of  Richard  Wood- 
ville,  Earl  Rivers,  by  whom  she  had  that  Elizabeth 
Woodville  who  was  the  consort  of  Edward  IV.,  and 
the  mother  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  who  was  slain  in 
the  Tower. 


2IO       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

The  children  of  Bolingbroke  figure  in  the  Ward- 
robe Books,  where  we  find  money  paid  for  a  "  long 
gown  "  for  the  year-old  Lord  Henry  ;  notice  of  the 
birth  of  Lord  Thomas  (Duke  of  Clarence)  at  London, 
1388;  of  outlays  of  cloth  for  the  bed  of  his  nurse, 
and  canvas  for  his  own  cradle,  when  the  family  were, 
soon  after,  sojourning  at  Kenil worth.  Like  all  other 
English  boys  of  their  rank  and  times,  they  were 
served,  and  like  them  they  occasionally  suffered. 
Mr.  Tyler  cites  an  entry  from  the  records  of  the 
Duchy  of  Lancaster  of  the  year  1395,  in  the  March 
of  which  year  one  Thomas  Pye  was  paid  6s.  Sd.  for 
riding  from  London  to  Leicester,  "  with  all  speed,  on 
account  of  the  illness  of  the  young  Lord  Henry." 

He  had  his  toys  and  delights  too,  even  when  a  boy, 
and  some  of  these  gave  evidence  of  his  good  taste. 
**  Musicis  delectabatur "  is  the  expression  of  the 
Italian  chronicler  who,  under  the  pseudonym  of 
Titus  Livius,  has  left  an  account  of  this  "young 
lord ; "  and  this  fondness  for  music  was  early  de- 
veloped, for  when  he  was  ten  years  old,  another 
household  entry  register,  in  regard  to  him,  notices 
"  Sd.  paid  by  the  hands  of  Adam  Garston,  for  harp- 
strings  purchased  for  the  harp  of  the  young  Lord 
Henry."  Titus  further  remarks,  that  Henry  at  one 
time  cared  more  for  music  than  for  martial  affairs ; 
but  he,  nevertheless,  early  played  at  that  game,  of 
which  in  his  youth  and  manhood  he  made  such  a 
serious  business  for  his  enemies,  and  such  glory  for 
himself.  He  is  still  in  his  tenth  year,  when  the  purse 
of  his  father  is  drawn  upon  to  the  amount  of  "  1 2d 
to  Stephen  Furbour  for  a  new  scabbard  of  a  sword 
for  young  Lord  Henry ; "  and  "  is.  6d.  for  three- 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  211 

fourths  of  an  ounce  of  tissue  of  black  silk  bought  at 
London  of  Margaret  Stranson  for  a  sword  of  young 
Lord  Henry." 

Meanwhile,  Henry  and  his  brothers  were  not  left 
without  tutors  and  grave  instruction.  Indeed,  a 
year  previous  to  the  notices  of  harps  and  weapons, 
there  is  one  of  "4$-."  (spent)  "for  seven  books  of 
grammar "  contained  in  one  volume,  and  bought  at 
London  for  the  young  Lord  Henry ;  and  Mr.  Tyler, 
not  unreasonably,  suggests  that  Beaufort  (afterward 
the  famous  cardinal)  directed  the  grammatical  studies 
of  his  nephew.  Those  of  Henry's  brother,  Hum- 
phrey, were  superintended  by  one  Thomas  Rothwell, 
whose  "salary  "of  13J.  4^.,  for  the  term  ended  at 
Easter,  is  duly  entered  in  the  accounts  of  the 
receiver-general. 

It  is  certain  that  Bolingbroke  himself  had  little  to 
do,  personally,  with  the  education  of  his  children; 
nothing  at  all  with  that  of  Henry.  During  portions, 
at  least,  of  the  years  from  1 390  to  1 393,  that  unquiet 
earl  was  absent  from  home,  travelling  in  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa;  and  even  when  at  home,  jousts 
and  tournaments  and  fencings  seem  to  have  engaged 
much  of  the  time  of  "  Sir  Harry  of  Derby,  the  duke's 
son  of  Lancaster.'* 

In  the  year  after  that  in  which  this  Sir  Harry,  as 
he  is  sometimes  called,  returned  from  a  visit  to  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  namely,  in  1394,  his  home  was 
despoiled  of  its  brightest  ornament,  and  Henry  of 
Monmouth  lost  one  of  the  best  of  mothers ;  a  mother 
whose  memory  he  cherished,  and  a  tribute  of  respect 
to  whom  was  one  of  the  first  acts  of  his  reign,  when 
he  came  to  be  king,  and  placed  an  effigy  of  that  illus- 


2  12        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

trious  lady  over  her  tomb  at  Leicester.  Henry's 
grandmother,  the  Countess  of  Hereford,  presented 
him  with  a  missal  and  breviary;  and  from  Henry's 
intentions  with  respect  to  her,  mentioned  in  his  will, 
he  appears  to  have  been  grateful  to  the  maternal  rela- 
tive who  in  some  wise  cared  for  him  after  he  had 
been  bereaved  of  his  mother. 

He  was  early,  however,  given  up  to  the  compan- 
ionship and  guardianship  of  men.  His  paternal 
uncle,  Beaufort,  a  member  of  Queen's  College,  was 
chancellor  of  the  university  during  one  year,  1398. 
Henry  is  said  to  have  studied  under  his  kinsman,  at 
Queen's,  and  he  could  then  have  been  not  more  than 
eleven  years  of  age.  In  the  old  building,  tradition 
long  pointed  to  a  room  as  inhabited  by  him  ;  and  this 
tradition  was  strengthened  if  not  confirmed  by  the 
portrait  of  the  august  student  in  the  painted-glass 
window  of  the  chamber.  In  Fuller's  time  there  was, 
in  the  room,  what  the  church  historian  describes  as 
the  prince's  picture  in  brass.  Long  after  the  illus- 
trious pupil  himself  had  passed  away,  a  Latin  inscrip- 
tion in  the  apartment  informed  all  visitors  that,  to 
perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  the  fact  for  ever,  this 
record  was  made  that  "  The  Emperor  of  Britain,  the 
triumphant  Lord  of  France,  the  conqueror  of  his 
enemies  and  of  himself,  Henry  V.  was  of  this  little 
chamber  once  the  great  inhabitant." 

There  is  no  record  of  such  residence  in  the  archives 
of  the  university,  but  Mr.  Tyler  suggests  thereupon, 
that  the  young  student,  "  though  perhaps  without 
himself  being  enrolled  among  the  regular  academics, 
lived  with  his  uncle,  then  chancellor,  and  studied 
under  his  superintendence ;  "  a  general  superintend- 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  213 

ence,  the  details  being  entrusted,  it  is  supposed,  "  to 
others  more  competent  to  instruct  him  in  the  various 
branches  of  literature."  The  favour  exhibited  sub- 
sequently by  Henry,  when  king,  for  certain  eminent 
Oxford  men  of  learning  and  merit,  whose  fortunes  he 
advanced,  is  conjectured  to  have  arisen  from  acquaint- 
ance made  with  them  during  this  pupilage  at  the 
university. 

Henry's  brief  residence  there  may  have  been  inter- 
rupted by  an  event  most  important  in  its  results. 
His  father,  who  had  been  recently  created  Duke  of 
Hereford,  accused  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  of  reporting 
that  the  king,  Richard  H.,  had  it  in  mind  to  murder 
themselves  and  others  whom  he  considered  as  his  per- 
sonal enemies.  On  the  denial  of  Norfolk,  that  trial 
of  battle  was  about  to  commence  at  Coventry,  which 
the  king  so  strangely  impeded  by  separating  the 
adversaries,  ordering  Bolingbroke  into  exile  for  ten 
years,  and  Norfolk  to  a  banishment  for  life,  with  con- 
fiscation of  all  his  property  save  ;^  1,000  a  year.  The 
wayward  king  subsequently  reduced  Bolingbroke's 
term  of  exile  to  four  years ;  but  a  few  months  later, 
when  John  of  Gaunt  died,  in  February,  1399,  the 
capricious  monarch  made  the  penalty  on  Bolingbroke 
as  severe  as  that  on  Norfolk,  banishing  him  for  life, 
and  confiscating  his  property,  but  leaving  certain 
money  for  his  maintenance.  Forty  thousand  sympa- 
thisers saw  Bolingbroke  depart,  and  accompanied  him 
far  upon  his  way,  some  all  the  way,  to  Dover.  Rich- 
ard, having  exiled  the  father,  immediately  laid  hands 
upon  the  son,  and  young  Henry  of  Monmouth  was 
placed  under  restraint,  gentle  enough,  but  sufficient 
to  shut  out  all  hope  of  escape.     The  boy-prisoner 


214       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  narrowly  watched,  and  yet  notwithstanding  the 
terms  on  which  king  and  lord  mutually  stood, — op- 
pressor and  oppressed,  —  the  captive  and  the  gaoler 
learned  to  love  each  other;  and  Richard  settled  on 
his  cousin  ;£500  a  year,  which  was  after  all  not 
excessively  liberal,  seeing  that  he  had  plundered 
Henry's  father  of  a  thousandfold  that  amount. 

The  king,  too,  laid  out  various  sums  for  dresses 
and  light  coat-armour  for  young  Henry,  as  part  of 
his  outfit  necessary  for  the  journey  to  and  the  sojourn 
in  Ireland ;  but  the  generosity  this  may  seem  to 
denote  is,  for  the  reasons  alleged  above,  not  of  a 
high  order. 

Richard's  subjects  were  now  fast  drifting  toward 
rebellion ;  but  the  king  not  seeing,  or  affecting  not 
to  see,  the  coming  calamity,  proceeded  on  an  expedi- 
tion to  subdue  certain  troublesome  chieftains  in  Ire- 
land. Young  Henry  accompanied  him,  landing  with 
Richard  at  Waterford,  after  a  two  days'  passage  from 
Milford  Haven,  and  having  for  his  especial  companion 
the  little  Lord  Humphrey,  another  captive  guest  and 
kinsman  of  Richard.  Humphrey  was  the  son  of 
Thomas  of  Woodstock,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  and 
youngest  brother  of  the  Black  Prince.  The  duke's 
hostility  to  Richard  was  the  cause  of  his  murder  at 
Calais,  —  a  crime  in  which  that  king  was  confederate. 
Thus,  of  both  the  boys  now  with  him,  he  had  done 
violent  wrong  to  the  fathers. 

About  three  weeks  after  the  landing  at  Waterford, 
Richard  advanced  against  the  most  turbulent  of  the 
Irish  chieftains,  —  Mac  Murchard.  On  the  eve  of 
Midsummer  Day,  1399,  the  future  hero  of  Agincourt 
saw  for  the  first  time  the  serious  face  of  war.     Mac 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  215 

Murchard,  with  three  thousand  wild,  hardy  men,  was 
posted  in  a  wood,  which  the  king  could  only  reach  by 
traversing  a  desert  district,  which  furnished  no  sup- 
plies ;  and  there  the  rightful  King  of  Ireland,  as  the 
great  Mac  (Mac  More)  called  himself,  awaited  Richard, 
and  the  result  of  victory  or  death.  The  King  of  Eng- 
land declined  to  enter  the  pathless  forests,  in  which  lay 
the  undismayed  Irish ;  but  he  set  fire  to  the  asylum, 
destroying  therewith  many  villages  which  favoured 
the  Mac  Murchard  faction.  By  the  light  of  this  con- 
flagration, to  the  music  of  wailing,  shouts,  or  curses, 
and  amid  a  space  cleared  by  the  flames,  around  which 
the  royal  leopards,  and  many  a  gay  pennon  and  stand- 
ard were  pitched,  that  fair  and  handsome  young 
bachelor,  Henry  of  Monmouth,  was  knighted.  The 
honour  was  conferred  on  this  boy,  not  yet  twelve  years 
of  age,  out  of  the  king's  true  and  entire  affection.' 
"  My  fair  cousin,"  —  thus  spoke  Richard  to  Henry,  — 
"  henceforth  be  gallant  and  bold,  for  unless  you  con- 
quer, you  will  have  Httle  name  for  valour."  The 
time,  scene,  and  circumstances  had  a  gloomy  gran- 
deur, as  may  be  conjectured  by  the  words  of  an  eye- 
witness, who  tells  us,  "  that  for  his  (Henry's)  greater 
honour  and  satisfaction,  and  to  the  end  that  it  might 
be  better  imprinted  on  his  memory,  the  king  made 
eight  or  ten  other  knights.  But  indeed,"  says  the 
timid  Frenchman,  "  I  do  not  know  what  their  names 
were ;  for  I  took  little  heed  about  the  matter,  seeing 
that  melancholy,  uneasiness,  and  care  had  formed 
and  altogether  chosen  my  heart  for  their  abode,  and 
anxiety  had  dispossessed  me  of  joy." 

A  military  promenade  to  DubUn,  a  gay  sojourn  in 

» Creton. 


2i6       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  chief  society,  —  and  then  came  the  great  change, 
and  the  great  news,  that  Bolingbroke  was  in  England, 
his  Hps  speaking  of  reform,  his  heart  bent  upon 
obtaining  the  crown !  Richard  too  long  delayed  to 
meet  him,  entrusting  that  work  to  emissaries,  who 
failed  in  their  attempt  or  in  their  allegiance.  At 
length,  in  August,  the  king  crossed  the  Irish  Channel 
to  his  doom ;  but  he  took  with  him  neither  of  his 
captive  cousins.  Previous  to  his  departure,  however, 
he  summoned  young  Harry  to  his  presence.  "  Henry, 
my  child,"  said  he,  —  according  to  the  minute  details 
of  the  writer  known  as  Otterbourne,  —  "  see  what 
your  father  has  done  to  me.  He  has  actually  invaded 
my  land  as  an  enemy,  and,  as  if  in  regular  warfare, 
has  taken  captive  and  put  to  death  my  liege  subjects 
without  mercy  and  pity.  Indeed,  child,  for  you 
individually  I  am  very  sorry,  because  for  this  unhappy 
proceeding  of  your  father  you  must,  perhaps,  be 
deprived  of  your  inheritance."  If  the  reply  given  by 
Henry  be  correctly  reported,  it  affords  proof  of  the 
discreetness  of  his  character.  "In  truth,  my  gra- 
cious king  and  lord,"  was  his  remark,  "I  am  sincerely 
grieved  by  these  tidings,  and,  as  I  conceive,  you  are 
fully  assured  of  my  innocence  in  this  proceeding  of 
my  father."  "I  know,"  answered  the  king,  "that 
the  crime  which  your  father  has  perpetrated  does  not 
attach  at  all  to  you,  and  therefore  I  hold  you  excused 
of  it  altogether." 

With  this  kind  sentiment  he  shut  up  Henry  and 
Humphrey  within  the  strong,  yet  dilapidated,  walls 
of  Trym  Castle.  In  that  melancholy  fortress  the 
two  companions  awaited  their  respective  doom.  It 
came  to  one  in  the  shape  of  heirship  to  a  crown ; 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  217 

to  the  other,  in  the  form  of  possession  of  a  grave. 
Young  Humphrey  never  saw  England  again,  he 
dying  of  a  fever ;  and  his  widowed  mother  dying  soon 
after,  because  she  was  childless. 

Richard  landed  at  Milford,  fell  into  Bolingbroke's 
hands,  and  reached  London  a  captive  monarch  —  all 
within  the  month  of  August,  1399.  At  the  end  of 
another  month  he  had  formally  resigned  the  crown ; 
and  about  a  fortnight  later,  the  young  Lord  Henry, 
who  was  so  recently  a  prisoner  in  Trym  Castle,  was 
released,  carried  up  to  Dublin  in  all  honour,  and 
conveyed  to  England  in  a  ship  the  property  of  one 
Henry  Dryhurst,  of  West  Chester,  bearing  with  him 
the  ornaments  of  the  private  chapel  of  King  Richard. 
He  saw  his  father  crowned  at  Westminster,  and  two 
days  later,  on  October  15th,  was  himself  created 
Prince  of  Wales.  He  was  then  twelve  years  and  two 
months  old. 

As  on  the  occasion  of  the  creation  of  his  unfortu- 
nate predecessor,  Richard,  so  now  the  Commons 
prayed  that  they  might  be  entered  on  the  record 
at  the  election  of  the  prince.  On  the  former  occa- 
sion, the  Commons  were  truly  informed  that  the 
creation  was  not  the  effect  of  parliamentary  privilege, 
but  of  royal  prerogative ;  and  their  prayer  was  not 
granted.  On  the  present  occasion,  a  different  course 
was  taken  ;  and  out  of  politic  courtesy,  probably.  King 
Henry  IV.  affected  to  consult  the  Parliament  in  this 
national  and  popular  act ;  and  it  was  by  the  assent  of 
all  the  Estates  that  Henry  of  Monmouth  was  created 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  invested  with  the  titles  of  Duke 
of  Cornwall,  Aquitaine,  and  Lancaster,  Earl  of 
Chester ;  and  was  declared  heir  to  the  throne. 


2i8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

High  on  that  throne  sate  Henry  IV.  when  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  brought  into  his  presence,  at 
Westminster.  With  his  own  hands  he  placed  on  the 
head  of  his  son  a  gold  coronet  adorned  with  pearls, 
on  his  finger  a  ring,  and  delivered  into  his  hand  the 
emblematic  rod,  kissing  him  the  while,  and  then 
blessing  him. 

The  king  conferred  on  the  prince  the  whole  of  the 
land  of  Wales.  .  **But  I  think,"  says  Creton,  an  eye- 
witness of  the  ceremony,  "  I  think  he  must  conquer 
it  if  he  will  have  it ;  for  in  my  opinion  the  Welsh 
will  on  no  account  allow  him  to  be  their  lord,  for  the 
sorrow,  evil,  and  disgrace  which  the  English,  together 
with  his  father,  had  brought  upon  King  Richard.*' 
The  French  chronicler  proved  to  be  right ;  but,  mean- 
while, Bolingbroke  thought  not  of  coming  difficulties, 
and  joyfully  blessed  and  invested  his  son. 

Thus  invested,  and  thus  blessed,  the  Commons 
provided  for  his  safety  by  obtaining  from  the  king  a 
promise  that  a  prince  of  such  tender  age  might  not 
be  permitted  to  leave  the  kingdom,  lest  enemies 
should  deprive  him  of  his  inheritance.  The  king, 
however,  had  no  fears.  He  had  obtained  the  crown 
by  conquest,  fortified  his  right  thus  acquired  by 
exacting  from  Richard  his  own  appointment  as  suc- 
cessor, and  claiming,  moreover,  to  be  next  heir-male, 
and,  so,  rightful  king.  What  had  he  or  his  son  to 
fear?  Of  whom  was  the  former  —  hares  maluSy 
as  he  styled  himself  —  to  be  in  dread } 

Of  a  quiet  gentleman  living  quietly  on  his  estate 
at  Wigmore.  He  was  not  meddlesome,  for  he  loved 
little  to  be  called  to  account.  Moderately  wealthy, 
plain  of  dress,  a  county  nobleman  rather  than  a  feudal 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  219 

lord,  he  was  overlooked  when  less  dangerous  persons 
were  watched  and  feared.  "They  that  esteemed 
men,"  says  old  John  Trussell,  "by  the  outward  ap- 
pearance only,  could  see  in  him  no  great  show  of  wit." 
Yet  he  made  a  pun  —  an  indifferent  one,  it  is  true  — 
on  the  king's  indifferent  Latin.  ^^  Hcsres  malus,'' 
quotha,  "aye,  as  a  pirate  is  to  the  merchant  whom 
he  hath  utterly  despoiled ! "  The  familiars  of  the 
gentleman  by  whom  this  was  said  nodded  and  smiled. 
The  gentleman  himself  was  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March, 
and  descended  from  Philippa,  the  child  of  long  Lionel, 
Duke  of  Clarence,  and  married  to  Edmund,  Lord 
March.  As  Lionel  was  an  elder  brother  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  his  daughter's  children  had  prior  claims  to 
the  succession,  and  this  bad  pun  of  one  of  the  Morti- 
mers was  the  first  and  quiet  protest  of  a  rival  house, 
afterward  that  of  York,  against  the  usurpation  of  the 
house  of  Lancaster,  of  which  house  Henry  of 
Monmouth,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  now  next  heir. 

Those  days  were  days  of  mingled  piety  and  supersti- 
tion, and  on  a  basis  composed  of  both  these  elements 
young  Henry's  heirship  was  considered  secure;  for 
his  father  had  just  been  anointed  with  a  charmed 
oil,  the  virtue  of  which  was  to  make  of  the  anointed 
a  champion  of  the  Church,  and  to  make  of  the 
Church  the  protector  of  its  champion.  This  oil  had 
been  given,  so  ran  the  legend,  by  a  holy  man  in 
France  to  Henry,  the  first  Duke  of  Lancaster,  when 
the  latter  was  fighting  under  Edward  HL  in  the 
French  wars.  The  giver  informed  the  duke  of  those 
virtues  which  I  have  named,  whereby  the  oil  was 
rendered  so  precious.  The  duke  loyally  presented 
the  sacred  fluid  to  Edward  of  Woodstock,  Prince  of 


2  20       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Wales  ;  and  the  hero  of  Cressy  jealously  guarded  the 
magic  gift  that  he  might  be  anointed  therewith  when 
the  day  of  his  accession  should  arrive.  That  day 
never  came  to  Prince  Edward,  and  the  vial,  locked 
within  a  chest,  with  a  legendary  certificate  of  its 
excellence,  lay  where  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  depos- 
ited it  in  the  Tower,  forgotten.  When  Richard,  the 
succeeding  Prince  of  Wales,  became  king,  no  man 
thought  or  knew  of  this  wonder-working  oil.  Sub- 
sequently to  the  coronation  of  that  monarch,  the  vial, 
too  carefully  put  away  by  Edward  of  Woodstock, 
was  discovered,  with  the  document  attesting  its 
powers.  His  son,  Richard  of  Bordeaux,  vehemently 
desired  to  be  anointed  with  this  marvellous  liquid; 
but  the  highest  churchmen  opposed  such  a  desire, 
for  who  had  ever  heard  of  crowned  king  being  twice 
anointed  to  the  Lord.?  The  oil  in  short  would  not 
flow  for  Plant agenet.  It  had  been  brought  into 
England  by  Lancaster,  and  to  the  line  bearing  that 
name  it  alone  would  be  efficacious.  Richard  indeed 
concealed  the  vial,  carrying  it  with  him  to  Ireland, 
but  he  was  forced  to  surrender  it  at  Flint,  and  it 
was  used  for  the  anointing  of  an  usurper.  But  that 
anointing  sanctified  the  usurpation,  and  thus  super- 
naturally  strengthened,  Henry  of  Bolingbroke  looked 
upon  himself  as  a  king  chosen  of  the  Lord,  and  on 
Harry  of  Monmouth  as  a  Prince  of  Wales  whose  suc- 
cession to  the  throne  would  be  unopposed  and  his 
occupation  of  it  glorious. 

The  prophecy  pointed  to  a  championship  of  the 
Church  being  the  distinction  of  the  king  and  his 
house.  This  championship  was  affected  both  by 
Henry  and  the  prince.    Indeed  the  exemplary  church- 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  221 

manship  of  the  latter  is  made  matter  of  great  lauda- 
tion by  his  priestly  chronicler,  who  notified,  with 
great  admiration,  the  important  fact,  that  whenever 
Harry  of  Monmouth  went  to  church  he  steadily  sat 
out  the  whole  service  from  beginning  to  end ! 

Old  Trussell,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  have 
had  some  suspicion  of  the  non-efficiency  of  the  oil, 
as  of  the  non-fulfilment  of  the  prophecy ;  for  he 
remarks,  "To  discourse  either  of  the  authority  or 
certainty  of  these  prophecies,  I  presume  not;  but 
this  is  observed  —  many  of  them  fail,  or  are  fulfilled 
in  another  sense  than  as  they  are  ordinarily  con- 
ceived and  taken."  And  therewith  he  slyly  records 
a  fact  illustrative  of  the  Lancastrian  championship 
of  the  Church,  to  the  effect  that  during  the  time  of 
the  kingship  of  Bolingbroke,  when  Harry  of  Mon- 
mouth was  Prince  of  Wales,  "  execution  by  fire  was 
first  put  in  practice  within  this  realm,  for  controver- 
sies in  point  of  religion." 

With  the  dignity  of  prince  the  active  life  of  Henry 
of  Monmouth  soon  commenced.  The  question  of 
his  marriage,  not  with  one  particular,  but  with  any 
of  the  daughters  of  the  King  of  France,  was  entered 
upon,  and  passed  by,  not  to  be  resumed  till  the  lover 
wooed  his  French  bride  in  person.  Thus  early,  too, 
was  discussed  the  question  of  his  establishment,  and 
the  Privy  Council  was  memorialised  by  the  young 
prince,  who  describes  himself  as  destitute  of  every 
kind  of  appointment  relative  to  his  household.  He 
was  not  yet  fourteen,  but  was  ripe  for  housekeep- 
ing; all  that  the  young  gentleman  lacked  for  that 
purpose,  were  "chapel,"  including  priests'  vest- 
ments, and  chapel  furniture,  "chambers,  halls,  ward- 


222        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

robe,  pantry,  buttery,  kitchen,  scullery,  saucery, 
almonry,  anointry,  and  generally  all  things  necessary 
for  his  establishment."  All  these  items  are  noticed 
in  the  memorial ;  but  the  memorialist  had  to  wait  ere 
he  kept  joyous  house  in  the  neighbourhood  of  East- 
cheap,  and  meanwhile  he  remained  rather  more  under 
the  guardianship  of  Henry  Beaufort,  now  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  than  in  the  companionship  of  his  father 
the  king. 

Between  his  boyhood  and  his  manhood,  let  us  look 
at  the  picture  of  this  young  prince  as  he  is  portrayed 
by  the  chroniclers. 

In  the  memorials  of  Henry  of  Monmouth,  written 
by  an  anonymous  Benedictine  attached  to  the  prince's 
household,  and  edited  by  Mr.  Cole,  we  are  told  that 
Henry  was,  as  a  child,  brought  up  in  orthodox  prin- 
ciples, imbued  with  a  pure  morality,  and  addicted 
neither  to  laziness  nor  gluttony.  As  he  grew  older, 
he  was  trained  in  manly  exercises,  and  found  his 
recreation  in  hunting,  hawking,  fishing,  riding,  or 
walking. 

**  His  exercitiis  teneros  annos  tenuisti, 
Doctis  conciliis  seniorum  teque  dedisti." 

Of  the  prince's  person  the  Benedictine  gives  us 
a  finished  sketch,  in  which  we  see  his  spherical  skull 
and  ample  forehead,  —  sign,  as  the  writer  remarks, 
of  one  wise  in  council.  An  excellent  thing,  writes 
the  priest,  is  such  a  head  for  one  who  rules,  for  a 
lofty  forehead  is  evidence,  or  ought  to  be,  of  a  healthy 
mind.  His  hair  was  brown  in  colour,  thick  and 
straight ;  his  nose  Grecian  in  shape,  face  oblong, 
complexion   florid,  and  his  eyejS  large,   bright,  and 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  223 

hazel  {subrufe  patent es)  ;  when  tranquil,  sweet  as 
the   dove's ;   when  excited,   flashing  like  the  lion's. 

The  Benedictine  continues,  as  if  he  were  making 
out  a  passport  in  verse,  to  set  down  the  other  fea- 
tures :  teeth  white  and  regular,  ears  small  and  well- 
shaped,  chin  dimpled,  or  is  it  "doubled," — mentum 
fissufHy  —  throat  full,  cheeks  mingling  the  rose  and 
lily,  lips  red,  and  the  whole  frame  well-built  and  held 
together.  Hall,  in  his  Chronicle,  adds  some  other 
characteristics  —  namely,  that  the  prince  was  "  stout 
of  stomake,"  and  that  his  hair  was  black. 

Redmayne,  who  composed  (in  the  reign  of  Henry 
Vni.)  the  "  Life  of  Henry,"  which  has  been  recently 
edited  by  Mr.  Cole,  says  that  "in  his  earliest  years 
he  gave  many  promises  of  his  future  excellence,  from 
which  one  might  have  conjectured  that  Almighty 
God,  in  his  compassion  for  humanity,  would  place 
him  at  the  head  of  the  kingdom  of  England.  Infi- 
nite evidences  occur  of  incidents  which  teach  us 
that  there  were  in  him  not  the  foreshadows  but  the 
express  signs  of  his  great  virtues."  The  chronicle 
then  continues,  at  great  length,  to  praise  the  industry 
of  the  young  prince,  his  aptitude  for  military  studies, 
his  godlike  pity  for  the  miserable,  his  zeal  for  relig- 
ion, his  wisdom,  and  his  moderation,  —  crowning  the 
prince's  praise  by  an  assertion  which  reminds  one  of 
the  inscription  in  his  room  at  Oxford,  to  the  effect 
that  he  achieved  what  was  not  only  most  difficult 
to  the  unskilled  multitude,  but  also  to  the  learned 
and  the  wise,  —  a  victory  over  himself  even  more  fre- 
quently than  over  others.  In  this  rare  excellence, 
Redmayne  recognised  in  Henry  a  touch  of  divinity, 
acknowledging  a  sign  of  the  same  superhuman  power 


224       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

in  the  triumphs  which  he  obtained  by  his  statesman- 
ship as  well  as  by  the  sword. 

His  first  and  chief  glories  were  achieved  by  the 
sword;  and  that  weapon  he  wielded  on  battle-field 
with  the  son  of  the  Black  Prince  in  his  bright  boy- 
hood. After  the  death  of  Richard,  Henry  IV.  was 
speedily  beset  by  enemies  ;  Scotland  was  up,  and  it 
is  reported  that  in  1400  the  Prince  of  Wales,  then 
thirteen  years  old,  was  sent  forward  with  the  ad- 
vanced guard.  It  is  more  certain  —  is,  indeed,  an 
established  fact  —  that  in  the  spring  of  1401  the 
prince  was  himself  in  Wales  at  the  head  of  a  force 
charged  to  suppress  a  rebellion,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  Owen  Glendower ;  no  Welsh  semi-savage,  but  a 
gentleman  who  knew  London  life,  had  studied  in  the 
Inns  of  Court,  had  served  under  Richard,  and  thor- 
oughly hated  the  Lancastrians. 

To  suppress  such  an  insurrection  was  considered 
good  military  and  political  exercise  for  a  prince  of 
about  fourteen  years  of  age.  The  king  thought  his 
son  might  have  a  fortnight's  easy  work  before  him, 
but  to  extinguish  that  Welsh  flame  of  war  cost  Henry 
as  many  years  as  his  father  had  awarded  days. 

In  what  style,  however,  this  boy  addressed  himself 
to  his  work  may  be  seen  from  his  own  despatch 
addressed  to  the  Council,  in  his  father's  absence 
from  London,  the  French  original  of  which  is  among 
the  Cottonian  manuscripts.  Like  all  true  soldiers, 
the  gallant  boy  wrote  with  lucid  brevity. 

"As  to  news  from  these  parts,  if  you  wish  to 
know  what  has  taken  place,  we  were  lately  informed 
that  Oweyn  de  Glendvardy  had  assembled  his  forces 
and  those  of  other  rebels,  his  adherents,  in  great 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  225 

numbers,  purposing  to  commit  inroads,  and,  in  case 
of  any  resistance  to  his  plans  on  the  part  of  the  Eng- 
lish, to  come  to  battle  with  them ;  and  so  he  boasted 
to  his  own  people.  Wherefore  we  took  our  men, 
and  went  to  a  place  of  the  said  Owyn,  well-built, 
which  was  his  chief  mansion,  and  called  Saghorn, 
where  we  thought  we  should  have  found  him  if 
he  wished  to  fight,  as  he  said;  but  on  our  arrival 
there  we  found  no  person.  So  we  caused  the  whole 
place  to  be  set  on  fire,  and  many  other  houses 
around  it,  belonging  to  his  tenants ;  and  then  we 
went  straight  to  his  other  place  of  Glyndvardy,  to 
seek  for  him  there.  There  we  burnt  a  fine  lodge 
in  his  park,  and  the  whole  country  round.  And  we 
remained  there  all  that  night.  And  certain  of  our 
people  sallied  forth  and  took  a  gentleman  of  high 
degree  of  that  country,  who  was  one  of  the  said 
Owyn's  chieftains.  This  person  offered  ;£500  for 
his  ransom  to  save  his  life,  and  to  pay  that  sum 
within  two  weeks.  Nevertheless,  that  was  not  ac- 
cepted, and  he  was  put  to  death,  and  several  of 
his  companions  who  were  taken  the  same  day  met 
with  the  same  fate.  We  then  proceeded  to  the 
Common  of  Eadruyon,  in  Monmouthshire,  and  there 
laid  waste  a  fine  and  populous  country;  thence  we 
went  to  Powys,  and  there  being  in  Wales  a  want  of 
provender  for  horses,  we  made  our  people  carry  oats 
with  them,  and  we  tarried  there  several  days.  And 
to  give  you  further  information  of  this  expedition,  we 
send  to  you  our  well-beloved  esquire,  John  de  Water- 
ton,  to  whom  you  will  be  pleased  to  give  entire  faith 
and  credence  in  what  he  shall  report  to  you  on 
our  part  with  respect  to  the  above-mentioned  affair. 


226        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

And  may  our  Lord  always  have  you  in  his  holy 
keeping.'* 

The  above  is  "  Given  under  our  signet  at  Shrews- 
bury, the  15th  day  of  May,  1401  ;"  and  we  see 
therein  that  as  yet  the  prince  has  done  more  by 
torch  and  rope  than  by  the  sword.  And  this  shows 
how  apt  he  was  in  bettering  the  instructions  afforded 
him  by  Richard,  when  the  latter  took  him  to  witness 
the  assault  on  the  strong  position  of  the  Great  Mac. 
Fire  did  good  service  there,  without  reaching  the 
Irish  prince ;  and  it  did  good  service  in  Wales,  with- 
out reaching  the  Welsh  one.  I  use  the  term  Welsh 
prince,  because  Owen  so  styled  himself,  his  title  was 
acknowledged  by  foreign  nations,  and,  moreover,  he 
had  supporters  whose  aid  was  as  useful  in  its  way  as 
that  of  kings  or  soldiers. 

In  the  attempt  of  Owen  Glendower  to  deprive 
Prince  Henry  of  his  principality,  the  clergy  were 
to  be  found  among  the  supporters  of  the  rebel  chief. 
Among  ministers  of  note  outlawed  for  being  confed- 
erated with  Owen  Glyndyfrdwy,  as  that  notable  per- 
son was  called  by  those  who  could  pronounce  his 
name,  I  meet  in  a  collection  of  manuscripts  (167  e) 
presented  in  1844,  by  the  governors  of  the  Welsh 
School  to  the  British  Museum,  with  an  extract  from 
an  ancient  manuscript  of  fines  and  amercements  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Anglesea,  for  taking  part  with 
the  redoubtable  Owen,  to  the  following  effect : 
"  Leweleinus  Wifort  voc.  Episcopus  Bangor ;  lenan 
ap  Bleddyn  ap  Grono,  Clerc^  qui  se  vocat  Archdiacon 
Anglesey.  Grif  le  Yonge  Archdiac.  Asaph."  The 
elections  of  these  officials  are  supposed  to  have  been 
irregular,  and  advantage  was  taken  therefrom  to  con- 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  227 

demn  them  to  outlawry,  a  penalty  which  was  shared 
with  them,  however,  by  David,  Archdeacon  of  Ban- 
gor, of  the  regularity  of  whose  appointment  no  ques- 
tion is  made. 

Down  to  the  period  of  the  battle  of  Shrewsbury, 
in  July,  1403,  the  still  boy-prince  was  active  in  forays 
against  the  Welsh  ;  but  sometimes  so  distressed  for 
pay  for  his  troops  that  he  had  to  pawn  his  own  **  lit- 
tle stock  of  jewels,"  as  he  says  in  a  letter  to  the 
Council,  in  order  to  procure  money  for  that  end. 
His  thoughts  were  not,  however,  all  given  up  to 
war.  He  had  leisure  enough  to  visit  the  South, 
and  to  be  in  London  to  give  his  consent  to  a  mar- 
riage which  was  never  to  be  accomplished,  namely, 
his  own  with  a  daughter  of  Eric,  King  of  Denmark 
—  a  monarch  to  whom  the  priVice's  sister,  Philippa, 
was  subsequently  espoused.  Meanwhile,  Henry  was 
created  Lieutenant  of  Wales,  and  the  young  hero 
was  speedily  placed  upon  his  mettle,  for  Henry 
Percy,  the  gallant  Hotspur,  who  had  been  the  best 
soldier  on  the  king's  side  that  had  maintained  his 
cause  in  the  principality,  now  fell  off  from  his  alle- 
giance. The  whole  of  his  family  and  followers  joined 
with  the  rebel,  and  the  envenomed  quarrel  was,  at 
length,  brought  to  issue  in  Heytely  Field,  adjacent 
to  the  city  of  Shrewsbury. 

The  defection  of  the  Percies  had  not  lasted  five 
days  before  the  royal  forces  attacked  them,  unsup- 
ported as  they  were  by  Glendower.  A  fiercer  war- 
lesson  of  three  hot  hours*  duration  no  student  of  the 
bloody  science  could  have  received  than  that  which 
Harry  of  Monmouth  obtained  in  this  the  first  pitched 
battle  in  which  he  was  ever  engaged.     It  was  fought 


228       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

on  the  feast  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen,  the  21st  of  July, 
1407.  As  chroniclers  are  altogether  divided  as  to 
the  circumstances  under  which  this  decisive  action 
commenced,  it  may  suffice  to  say  that  from  its 
opening  to  its  close  it  raged  with  excessive  fury  on 
both  sides. 

Hotspur's  terrible  archers  opened  this  festival  of 
death  by  incessant  discharges  of  arrows,  every  one 
of  which  found  its  aim  in  a  soldier's  breast.  The 
kings'  bowmen  rendered  as  good  service  on  their 
side,  in  Heytely  Field ;  and  the  presence  of  king  and 
prince,  and  the  encouragement  given  by  their  voice 
and  example,  nerved  each  follower  of  the  royal  stand- 
ard to  do  his  very  utmost  to  carry  the  honours  of  the 
day.  After  an  ineffectual  general  attack,  Percy  made 
a  last  resolute  assault  upon  the  king's  own  position, 
and  the  slaying  of  his  person  as  the  great  end  and 
glory  of  the  struggle.  Thitherward  he  flung  himself 
(the  "  English  Chronicle  "  says,  with  only  thirty  men) 
with  unparallelled  bravery,  his  archers  clearing  lines 
of  men  in  the  direction  of  the  royal  standard,  and  his 
swordsmen  and  himself  smiting  down  all  who  rushed 
in  to  occupy  the  gaps.  In  this  fierce  struggle  the 
Prince  of  Wales  received  his  first  wound  from  an 
arrow  in  the  face.  He  hardly  needed  this  spur  to 
increased  audacity ;  but,  under  the  sting,  he  rolled 
back  a  tide  of  war  that  had  more  than  once  imperilled 
the  life  of  his  father,  and  in  which  three  or  four  sol- 
diers, habited  like  the  king,  had  loyally  perished. 
The  royal  standard  had  thrice  been  cast  down, 
recovered,  and  raised,  and  the  issue  of  the  day  was 
as  yet  uncertain,  when  Hotspur  was  seen  to  go  down, 
smitten  by  a  chance  flight  from  an  English   bow. 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  229 

The  cry,  "  Henry  Percy  is  slain ! "  effected  more 
than  all  besides.  It  withered  the  arms  of  his  fol- 
lowers, and  strengthened  those  of  his  enemies.  The 
hearts  of  the  rebels  were  chilled,  those  of  the  royal- 
ists beat  high  with  security  of  triumph,  and  one 
crowning  effort  left  the  king  and  Prince  of  Wales 
victors,  and  secured  for  them  the  crown  which  was, 
more  than  once,  nearly  lost  in  the  field  by  Shrews- 
bury. 

So  conspicuously  did  the  prince  bear  himself  in 
this  school  of  blood  and  battle  which  he  first  seriously 
entered  on  this  day,  as  to  give,  so  Speede  remarks, 
"no  small  hope  of  that  perfection  which  afterward 
shone  in  him."  The  wound  in  his  face  was  his  bap- 
tism of  blood,  and,  from  this  anniversary  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalen,  the  boy  was  henceforth  a  true  and  gallant 
soldier.  On  his  own  side,  that  day,  there  fell  fifteen 
hundred  men-at-arms,  "  many  esquires  and  gentle- 
men," half  a  score  of  young  knights  (who  fell  about 
the  standard  whither  Hotspur  cut  his  way),  and  one 
earl  —  of  Stafford.  "  Three  thousand  sorely  wounded  " 
suggests  the  obstinacy  of  a  struggle,  in  which  the  van- 
quished lost  five  thousand  common  soldiers,  and  most 
of  the  esquires  and  gentlemen  of  Cheshire,  to  the 
number  of  a  couple  of  hundred. 

The  slaughter  on  the  latter  side  had  been  greater 
had  the  king  and  prince  pursued  the  affrighted  multi- 
tude which  took  to  flight  after  their  great  leader  was 
slain  ;  but,  out  of  compassion,  it  is  said,  these  were 
left  to  shift  for  themselves.  The  few  illustrious 
prisoners  taken  in  this  flight  were  executed  on  the 
following  Monday  —  as  traitors.  And  thus  ended  a 
contest,  in  the  three  hours  of  whose  raging  the  boy- 


230       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

prince,  at  Shrewsbury,  distinguished  himself  as  bril- 
liantly as  had  been  done  on  a  previous  occasion,  by 
the  boy-prince,  at  Cressy.  Such  was  the  training  of 
a  Prince  of  Wales,  such  the  work  expected  of  him, 
such  tl^e  perils  to  which  he  was  exposed,  in  the  old 
days  when  might  was  right ! 

One  feature  of  the  times  which  was  exhibited  after 
the  issue  of  the  "  sad  and  sorry  day  "  had  been  accom- 
plished, merits  attention.  This  was  a  commission  of 
mercy,  of  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  appointed 
the  head ;  and  for  some  time  the  youthful  warrior  sat 
at  Shrewsbury,  extending,  in  his  father's  name,  par- 
don and  assurances  of  safety  to  all  who  came  from 
the  side  of  the  rebels  to  ask  the  boon. 

The  prince's  own  establishment  in  town,  the  settling 
of  which  was  occupying  the  lords  of  the  council, 
profited  greatly  by  the  issue  of  the  battle  of  Shrews- 
bury. All  the  prisoners  of  note  who  carried  their 
plate  with  them  to  the  field  forfeited  their  property 
to  the  king,  and  he  made  over  the  plate  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  had  previously  pawned  his  own  jewels 
in  order  to  provide  pay  and  food  for  his  troops.  This 
"prize"  was  well  earned.  Brief  time,  too,  did  the 
prince  retain  it  in  his  possession,  seeing  that  before 
his  victory  over  the  Welsh  at  Grosmont,  in  1405,  he 
was  again  compelled  to  pawn  plate  and  jewels.  Within 
that  period  he  kept  for  awhile  a  '*  small  household  " 
at  Worcester,  where,  when  visited  by  great  nobles  of 
large  retinues,  the  visitors  paid  their  own  expenses ! 
There,  too,  he  devised  means  to  crush  the  continued 
attempts  of  the  Welsh  to  secure  Glendower's  rule  in 
Wales;  and  applied  those  means  on  the  nth  of 
March,  1405,  when  "with  a  very  small  force  in  all 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  231 

he  encountered  eight  thousand  rebels  near  Grosmont, 
in  Monmouthshire,  and  routed  them  with  a  loss  of 
nearly  a  thousand  slain."  "  Very  true  it  is,"  writes 
the  Prince  of  Wales  to  his  father,  "that  victory  is 
not  in  a  multitude  of  people,  but  in  the  power  of 
God."  The  young  soldier  of  eighteen  was  as  kind  as 
he  was  brave.  "Prisoners,"  he  writes,  "there  was 
none  taken  save  one,  who  was  a  great  chieftain  among 
them,  whom  I  would  have  sent  to  you,  but  he  cannot 
yet  ride  at  his  ease." 

For  several  years,  however,  the  young  prince,  even 
with  a  large  force,  found  it  difficult  to  keep  the  Welsh 
in  check.  Their  rebellion  was  hydra-headed.  Trod- 
den down  in  one  district,  a  flaming  crest  arose  in 
another.  Supplies  forwarded  to  the  prince  were  mis- 
applied ;  and  the  royal  treasury  was  too  exhausted  to 
repair  the  evil  effectually.  Nevertheless,  he  main- 
tained way  gallantly,  won  the  admiration  of  the 
people,  the  praise  of  Parliament,  and  the  love  of  his 
father.  For  his  brilliant  performance  of  his  arduous 
duties,  no  poor  acknowledgment,  the  king  conferred 
on  him  the  castle  and  estates  at  Framlingham,  which 
had  been  confiscated  from  the  Duke  of  Norfolk. 

Alternating  expeditions  in  Wales  with  short  so- 
journs in  London,  where  he  took  part  in  the  regula- 
tion of  national  affairs,  his  sword  and  name  had  become 
so  famous  that  he  was  engaged,  in  1407,  to  suppress 
an  outbreak  in  Scotland  ;  and  performed  his  task  with 
his  usual  brilliant  success.  On  his  return  to  Wales, 
the  rebellion  there  finally  died  out  before  him ;  and 
Owen  Glendower  himself  vanished  from  the  scene, 
never  again  to  be  heard  of.  Honours  flowed  in  upon 
the  pacificator,  who,  after  his  return  to  London,  was 


232       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

at  various  periods  made  president  of  the  Council, 
warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  constable  of  Dover, 
and  captain  of  Calais.  His  revenues,  when  keeping 
house  in  London,  and,  indeed,  elsewhere,  were  ex- 
ceedingly scanty;  but  the  king  found  means  to 
increase  them  by  giving  him  the  custody  of  disaf- 
fected persons,  and  assigning  him  compensation  for 
his  trouble,  from  the  duties  on  skins  and  wools. 

In  1408,  Henry  of  Monmouth  finally  quitted  Wales, 
where  he  had  first  appeared  in  1401  ;  thus  serving, 
as  it  were,  an  actual  apprenticeship  of  war  from  his 
fourteenth  to  his  twenty-first  year.  His  master-hand, 
in  later  years,  testified  to  the  efficiency  of  the  school 
in  which  he  had  been  reared. 

Three  different  negotiations  were  carried  on  sub- 
sequently to  this  for  the  marriage  of  the  young 
prince.  The  families  of  the  sovereigns  of  France, 
Norway,  and  Burgundy  were  successively  applied  to, 
to  yield  a  daughter ;  but  difficulties  supervened,  and 
Henry  continued  a  bachelor  till  after  he  was  king, 
and  wooed  in  person  young  Katherine  of  France. 

Meanwhile,  the  prince  often  presided  at  the  Coun- 
cil for  or  with  his  father,  who  ultimately  settled  upon 
him  his  mansion  in  Cold  Harbour,  near  Eastcheap, 
where  it  is  certain  Harry  held  a  joyous  establishment. 
Thence  he  frequently  repaired  to  court  accompanied 
by  crowds  of  followers  ;  and  thither  such  liberal  sup- 
plies of  wine  were  conveyed  as  probably  justify  the 
legend  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  hilarious,  if  not 
a  riotous,  household.  Of  actual  wild  living  such  as 
might  agree  with  the  term  "madcap  Harry,"  there 
is  no  evidence.  In  this  respect  his  brothers  Thomas 
and  John  seem  to  have  been  more  audacious  libertines 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  233 

than  he.  One  instance  is  cited  by  Stowe.  It  oc- 
curred on  a  grand  midsummer  holiday  of  14 10.  In 
the  chronicler's  words :  "  The  king's  sons,  Thomas 
and  John,  being  in  East  cheap,  at  supper,  or  rather  at 
breakfast  (for  it  was  after  the  watch  was  broken  up, 
between  two  and  three  of  the  clock  after  midnight), 
a  great  debate  happened  between  their  men  and 
others  of  the  court,  which  lasted  for  an  hour,  even 
till  the  mayor  and  sheriffs  with  other  citizens  ap- 
peased the  same;  for  the  which  afterward  the  said 
mayor,  aldermen,  and  sheriffs  were  sent  for  to  an- 
swer before  the  king  ;  his  sons  and  divers  lords  being 
highly  moved  against  the  city.  At  which  time,  Will- 
iam Gascoigne,  Chief  Justice,  required  the  mayor 
and  aldermen,  for  the  citizens,  to  put  them  in  the 
king's  grace."  This  was  accomplished,  the  city 
authorities  justifying  the  course  which  they  had 
adopted,  and  the  king  expressing  his  satisfaction 
therewith. 

I  now  come  to  two  points  in  the  prince's  life  which 
have  been  turned  to  his  disadvantage,  but  which,  fairly 
examined,  will  be  found  to  redound  to  his  credit.  In 
the  second  year  of  his  father's  reign,  a  statute  was 
levelled  against  heretics,  which  was  called  the  "  burn- 
ing statute,"  and  which  surrendered  them  and  their 
offence  to  spiritual  cognisance.  One  of  the  earliest 
acts  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  after  his  appointment  to 
the  presidency  of  the  Council,  was  the  presenting  to 
the  king  the  petition  of  "  his  humble  son,  Henry  the 
prince,  and  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  in  this 
present  Parliament  assembled,"  praying  that  "Lol- 
lards and  other  speakers  and  contrivers  of  news 
might,  after  the  feast  of  Epiphany  next  ensuing,  be 


234       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

apprehended  and  kept  in  safe  custody  till  the  next 
Parliament,  and  there  to  answer  to  the  charges 
against  them.**  To  this  petition,  which  rescued 
heretics  from  the  spiritual  tribunal,  and  sent  them 
for  judgment  to  the  Parliament,  the  king  assented; 
**  but,"  says  Mr.  Hallam,  "  the  clergy,  I  suppose,  pre- 
vented its  appearing  on  the  roll." 

Subsequently,  there  was  a  poor  Worcestershire 
tailor,  —  a  meek  vocation  which  furnished  some  of 
the  most  valiant-hearted  of  religious  martyrs,  —  one 
John  Badby,  whose  examinations  and  trial  for  heresy 
had,  after  fourteen  months'  duration,  brought  him  to 
the  stake  in  Smith  field.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was 
present  at  his  execution,  by  fire,  from  which  he 
attempted  to  save  this  most  dignified  and  courageous 
of  tailors,  who  resolutely  denied  tran substantiation. 
To  all  counsel  of  the  prince,  to  all  the  expoundings 
of  the  prior  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  consistent  Badby 
uttered  his  resolute  nay !  And,  tied  to  the  stake  as 
he  was,  a  butt  or  tun  was  passed  over  him,  and  fire 
set  to  the  fagots  heaped  up  around  it.  Badby  was 
then  heard  appealing  to  the  mercy  of  God.  The 
prince  thought  he  was  appealing  to  the  mercy  of 
man,  and  ordered  the  fire  to  be  quenched,  and  the 
butt  raised.  Again  was  pardon  and  even  money 
offered  to  the  tailor  if  he  would  recant.  But  no, 
even  with  the  foretaste  of  the  horrible  torture,  he 
would  not  surrender  his  opinion  touching  the  real 
presence.  The  prince  had  gone  as  far  as  his  rank 
and  authority  permitted,  perhaps  somewhat  further, 
and  leaving  the  calmly  heroic  tailor  to  his  awful 
sufferings,  he  rode  slowly,  and  no  doubt  sadly,  away. 

From  this  period  till  the  year  of  the  king's  death. 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  235 

the  history  of  this  Prince  of  Wales  is  divided  into  the 
certain  and  the  uncertain  —  dry  fact  and  interesting 
legend.  Since  1407,  the  king's  health  had  been  fail- 
ing. He  was  almost  as  a  leper,  and  the  prince  had 
been  assigned  by  consent  of  the  Council  to  be  near 
his  father's  presence,  that  he  might  devote  himself 
more  peculiarly  to  the  pubHc  service.  In  14 12  he 
ceased  to  be  of  the  Council  at  all,  and  was  deprived 
of  the  virtue  and  exercise  of  the  royal  authority, 
which  he  had  so  substantially  possessed,  that  foreign 
potentates,  the  prince's  own  brothers,  and  the  su- 
preme pontiff  himself,  addressed  their  letters  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  not  to  the  king.  Within  the 
period  marked  by  the  two  dates,  the  activity  of 
the  prince  was  very  great,  whether  acting  as  president 
of  the  Council,  captain  of  Calais,  or  pursuing  pirates, 
as  warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports.  Within  that  period, 
too,  negotiations  for  his  marriage  with  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy's  daughter  were  commenced  and  broken 
off.  The  duke  had  offered  his  daughter  as  a  wife  for 
the  prince,  subject  to  the  king  furnishing  him  with 
aid  in  his  quarrel  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Henry 
seems  to  have  been  dissatisfied  with  the  proposed 
dower  of  the  bride,  and  though  he  first  espoused  the 
quarrel  of  Burgundy,  he  subsequently  went  over  to  the 
Orleans  faction.  The  prince  did  not  readily  follow 
his  father's  example,  and  this  is  said  to  have  com- 
menced an  ill  feeling  between  them,  which  was  embit- 
tered by  slanderous  enemies  of  the  prince,  among 
whom  has  been  reckoned  his  father's  second  wife, 
Queen  Joanna,  who  is  said  to  have  been  jealous  of 
the  power  of  her  stepson.  At  one  period  of  their 
lives,  at  least,  the  Prince  of   Wales  and  his   step- 


236        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

mother  were  on  friendly  terms.  When  the  former 
held  in  his  custody  the  young  Earl  of  March,  he 
bribed  the  queen  to  use  her  influence  with  her  hus- 
band Bolingbroke  to  obtain  his  consent  that  the  earl 
should  contract  a  marriage.  It  was  an  extraordinary 
course  for  the  prince  to  take,  the  queen  to  sanction, 
or  the  king  to  further,  for  the  earl  had  a  better  claim 
to  the  throne  (as  the  descendant  of  an  elder  brother 
of  John  of  Gaunt)  than  the  king  himself.  The  Issue 
Rolls  of  the  first  year  after  the  accession  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  to  the  throne  record  as  follows  : 
"To  Joanna  Queen  (dowager)  of  England.  To 
money  paid  to  her  by  the  hands  of  Parnelle 
Brocket  and  Nicholas  Alderayre,  in  part  payment  of 
a  greater  sum  due  to  the  said  queen  upon  a  private 
agreement  made  between  the  said  queen  and  our  pres- 
ent lord  the  king,  especially  concerning  the  marriage 
of  the  Earl  of  March,  purchased  and  obtained  of  our 
said  lady  the  queen,  by  our  said  now  lord  the  king, 
whilst  he  was  Prince  of  Wales.  By  writ  privy  seal, 
;f  100."  Another  entry  notes  the  payment  of  an  equal 
sum  to  the  queen  dowager,  instalment  of  a  bribe 
administered  with  the  same  end  in  view. 

To  return  to  the  aspersions  on  the  prince's  char- 
acter. One  of  them  lay  in  the  accusation  of  his 
having  misappropriated  money  supplied  for  the  pay 
of  the  troops  guarding  Calais ;  but  this  charge  was 
triumphantly  refuted.  The  year  before  he  ceased  to 
be  of  the  Council  he  is  also  said  to  have  exhibited 
unseemly  eagerness  that  his  father  should  resign  his 
sovereign  authority  altogether;  but  this,  too,  would 
seem  to  be  greatly  exaggerated,  although  the  troops 
of  friends,  and  crowds  of  lords  and  gentles  whom  he 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  237 

assembled  around  him,  looked  more  than  ever  like 
the  founding  of  a  hostile  court,  which  was  already 
more  numerous  and  brilliant  than  that  of  his  father. 
Traces  there  are,  too,  of  the  paternal  mistrust  of  the 
heir  apparent.  Thus  we  read  of  the  prince  entering 
London  numerously  attended,  and  taking  up  his 
residence  with  the  Bishop  of  Durham.  Of  this  the 
king  is  no  sooner  informed,  than  he  hastily  leaves 
the  priory  of  St.  John  where  he  was  sojourning, 
repairs  to  the  house  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and 
finally  to  his  own  residence  at  Rotherhithe.  Finally, 
we  come  to  the  famous  story  of  the  prince  and  the 
Chief  Justice,  a  story  accepted  by  some  historians  and 
altogether  denied  by  others. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  undoubted  circumstance  of 
the  dismissal  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  from  the  Royal 
Council,  and  of  the  substitution  of  his  brother  Thomas 
in  his  place.  Popular  tradition  recognises  in  this 
fact  the  penalty  inflicted  by  the  king  in  return  for 
the  extreme  contempt  of  court  exhibited  by  the 
prince  in  striking,  or  raising  his  hand  against,  Chief 
Justice  Gascoigne,  who  had  committed  a  follower  of 
the  prince  to  prison,  refused  to  release  him  at  the 
prince's  request,  and  who  committed  the  prince  him- 
self to  the  same  restraint,  for  his  disrespect  of  the 
king's  authority  in  the  person  of  the  Chief  Justice. 
The  truth  of  this  well-known  legend  has  been  hotly 
contested,  —  some  upholding,  others  stoutly  denying 
it  altogether.  The  old  chroniclers  —  grandsons  and 
great-grandsons  of  the  contemporaries  of  the  prince 
—  accept  the  story,  with  such  variations,  more  or  less 
important  of  detail,  as  rather  add  to  than  detract 
from  the  possibility  of  this  remarkable  legend.     Mr. 


238       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Tyler,  in  his  history  of  Henry  V.,  has  gone  into  the 
question  at  very  great  length,  and  refuses  to  give 
any  credence  whatever  to  the  story  as  told,  or  to  the 
alleged  "madcap"  doings  of  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
This  biographer,  very  much  in  love  with  his  hero, 
grounds  his  objections  to  the  authenticity  of  the  story 
on  the  circumstance  that  no  contemporary  makes 
record  of  the  alleged  fact,  while  those  who  do  speak 
of  the  prince  mention  him  as  a  pious,  learned,  well- 
regulated  young  man,  whose  tastes  were  not  in  accord- 
ance with  indulgence  in  Eastcheap  revelries,  and 
swaggering  ruffianly  in  court  next  morning.  The 
dramatists  who  brought  the  story  on  the  stage,  and 
the  chroniclers  who  registered  it  a  century  or  more 
after  it  was  said  to  have  occurred,  Mr.  Tyler  treats 
these  as  gossips  whose  slander  is  not  worthy  of 
attention. 

On  the  other  hand,  Lord  Campbell  is  at  the  head 
of  an  adverse  faction,  who  hold  that  even  gossip  has 
some  foundation,  and  that  although  the  facts  may 
not  be  as  Shakespeare  and  the  other  play-writers, 
and  Elyot,  Elmham,  and  successive  chroniclers  have 
represented  them,  yet  that  they  have  in  them  many 
ingredients  of  truth.  The  evidence  on  either  side 
has  been  sifted  with  great  care,  and  elaborately  ana- 
lysed. I  will  rather  refer  my  readers  to  Tyler, 
Campbell,  Foss,  Cole,  and  the  editors  of  the  Chron- 
icle-biographies of  Henry  V.,  than  reproduce  the 
conclusions  arrived  at  by  those  gentlemen  ;  satisfying 
myself  with  remarking  that  the  learned  judge  named 
above,  who  has  most  experience  in  examining  testi- 
mony and  detecting  its  value,  is  of  opinion  that  there 
is  a  foundation  for  the  reports  of  the  gay  and  joyous 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  239 

life  led  by  the  prince,  and  that  the  incident  of  assault- 
ing the  judge  on  the  bench,  though  it  may  have  been 
exaggerated,  is  in  substance  possible  and  probable. 

Allowing  the  tradition  of  the  committal  of  the 
prince  to  be  true,  another  question  has  arisen,  as  to 
whether  Gascoigne  of  the  King's  Bench,  or  Markham 
of  the  Common  Pleas,  was  the  committing  judge. 
That  the  former  was  the  individual  who  exercised 
the  act  of  virtuous  audacity  has  been  established  as 
nearly  as  such  a  circumstance  can  be  established,  by 
Lord  Campbell.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Reverend 
D.  F.  Markham,  in  "A  History  of  the  Markham 
Family,"  cites  a  written  memorandum  made  by  his 
ancestor,  Francis  Markham,  a  lawyer,  author,  and 
soldier  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  to  the  following 
effect :  "  In  Henry  IV. 's  time.  Sir  John  Markham 
was  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  when 
a  servant  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  for  coining  money, 
was  in  Newgate  to  be  judged  before  him.  The 
prince,  sending  to  have  him  released,  the  judge 
refused.  The  prince  with  an  unruly  rout  came  and 
required  it.  The  judge  refused.  The  prince  stroke 
the  judge  on  the  face  ;  the  judge  committed  the 
prince  to  the  Fleet.  The  king  being  told  it,  thanked 
God  he  had  so  good  a  judge,  and  so  obedient  a  son 
to  yield  to  the  law."  To  this  a  ready  answer  may 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  false-coining  being  a  felony, 
such  an  offence  could  not  be  tried  in  the  Common 
Pleas,  but  must  have  been  brought  before  the  King's 
Bench.  Mr.  Markham,  however,  makes  one  more 
attempt  to  connect  the  name  of  his  ancestor  with 
the  act,  by  stating  his  belief  that  "every  authority 
agrees  that  the  prince  was  committed  to  the  Fleet, 


240       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  prison  of  the  Common  Pleas."  This  is  far  from 
being  the  case,  as  is  manifest  in  the  fact  that  for  a 
long  period  a  room  was  pointed  out  in  the  King's 
Bench  as  being  the  actual  chamber  occupied  by  the 
Prince  of  Wales  when  under  committal.  This  last 
fact,  which  has  escaped  the  notice  of  those  who  have 
hitherto  discussed  the  question,  is  mentioned  by 
Oldys,  in  a  note  to  his  "  Life  of  Gascoyne,"  in  the 
"Biographia  Britannica."  It  is  the  more  singular 
that  this  fact  has  not  been  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Mark- 
ham,  as  he  quotes  the  "Biographia"  on  another 
occasion,  and  must  necessarily  have  perused  the 
article  on  the  judge. 

Leaving  my  readers  to  exercise  their  own  discre- 
tion on  this  vexed  question,  I  proceed  to  notify  the 
increasing  illness  of  the  prince's  father,  and  to  re- 
mark, that  as  the  death  of  King  Henry  grew  immi- 
nent, the  enemies  of  his  house  grew  more  active  than 
ever  in  obstructing  the  peaceful  succession  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  to  the  crown.  The  old  fable  of  a 
living  King  Richard  was  revived,  and  emissaries  from 
Scotland  traversed  the  villages  of  England,  in  the 
last  year  of  Bolingbroke's  reign,  declaring  that  Rich- 
ard was  residing  at  the  Scottish  court,  awaiting  only 
a  signal  from  his  friends  to  repair  to  London  and 
recover  his  throne.  The  individual  who  represented 
the  dead  king  in  the  court  of  Scotland  was  one  John 
Ward  of  Trumpington.  His  features  were  of  the 
Plantagenet  cast,  and  one  Wightlock  who  had  been 
for  thirty  years  groom  and  yeoman  to  Richard,  on 
seeing  Ward,  acknowledged  him  for  his  old  king  and 
master. 

The  boldness  of  the  conspirators  was  calculated  in 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  241 

some  degree  to  alarm  the  prince  for  the  security  of 
his  inheritance.  On  the  gates  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
on  the  public  buildings  of  London,  and  about  the 
royal  manor  of  Bermondsey,  Wightlock  posted  papers 
in  which  he  vouched  that  King  Richard  was  alive  in 
Scotland,  and  that  he  himself  was  prepared  to  enter 
any  prison  as  a  hostage,  till  the  identity  was  satisfac- 
torily established.  He  proposed  that  his  King  Rich- 
ard should  be  brought  to  London,  protected  by  a 
safe-conduct ;  and,  should  that  individual  be  clearly 
proved  to  be  an  impostor,  Wightlock  "offered  him- 
self freely  to  submit  to  the  most  cruel  death  that 
rage  could  invent ; "  adding  that  "  he  was  as  sure 
that  King  Richard  was  alive  in  England  as  that  he 
had  a  father  and  mother,  and  was  born  into  the 
world  and  redeemed  by  Christ.  And  he  imprecated 
that  the  devil  might  take  him  to  lie  body  and  soul  in 
hell  eternally  —  that  he  might  never  have  mercy 
from  God,  nor  the  prayers  of  the  hply  Church  from 
that  day  to  the  last  judgment,  if  what  he  asserted 
was  not  true." 

This  bold  fellow  was  seized  and  confronted  with 
the  king,  to  whose  face  he  resolutely  maintained  that 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was  not  heir  to  the  crown, 
which  Henry  unrighteously  kept  from  Richard  of 
Bordeaux.  They  committed  Richard's  daring  yeo- 
man to  the  Tower;  but  to  the  universal  astonish- 
ment, Wightlock  made  his  escape.  Constable  and 
lieutenant  were  degraded,  fined,  and  imprisoned,  but 
the  penalties  imposed  on  those  exalted  officials  were 
remitted.  It  was  necessary,  however,  to  punish 
some  one,  and  accordingly  choice  was  made  of  one 
Bathe,   to   whose  ward  Wightlock  had   been   com- 


242       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

mitted,  and  the  humbler  officer  was  hanged,  drawn, 
and  quartered. 

The  last  days  of  Bolingbroke  were,  however,  again 
embittered,  and  the  peaceful  transfer  of  the  crown  to 
his  son  the  prince  again  impeded  by  the  partisans  of 
the  pseudo  Richard.  Again,  on  the  gates  of  Ber- 
mondsey  Church,  and  on  those  of  St.  Thomas's 
Hospital,  was  Wightlock's  declaration  planted,  and 
Southwark  was  excited  to  insurrection  by  Sir  Elias 
Lyvet  and  one  Thomas  Clark,  who  promised  aid 
from  Scotland  and  the  principality  to  carry  out  the 
attempt  toward  success.  Again,  too,  were  the  of- 
fenders taken,  and  unequal  justice  administered ;  for 
the  knight  was  set  at  liberty,  while  his  poor  follower 
was  remitted  to  the  Tower,  not  to  be  released  till  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  firmly  seated  on  the  throne, 
which  he  already,  it  was  said,  too  eagerly  and  impa- 
tiently coveted. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  father  and 
son  were  reconciled  before  the  former  was  summoned 
away.  Stowe  relates  that  the  prince  vindicated  his 
character,  in  letters  distributed  over  the  realm,  and 
that  he  was  granted  an  interview  by  his  sick  father, 
in  which  the  prince  so  successfully  explained  his  own 
conduct  that  the  king  pronounced  him  free  from  all 
suspicion,  fell  on  his  neck,  kissed  him,  called  him  his 
"  right  dear  and  heartily  beloved  son,"  and  undertook 
that  he  should  have  justice  of  his  slanderers. 

Whenever  this  scene  occurred,  it  was  closely  fol- 
lowed by  the  death  of  Bolingbroke.  Romancer  and 
poet  have  depicted  this  last  scene  according  to  the 
spirit  of  their  vocation.  The  time  is  certain,  March 
20,   14 1 2,  but   the   incidents  are  variously  related. 


I 


tfi^i?  >if1  ni  noiri2UD  6  noqu  baoGlT  " 


ir 


N  OF  THE  PRINCES  ( 
the  humbler  officer  was  hanged,  ;., 

•  vAciC,  iiuvvcvCi,  ilgiin 

isfer  of  the  crown  to 

1  by  the  partisans  of 

1  the  gates  of  Ber- 

'    of   St.    Thomas's 

^r- tj'  on  planted,  and 

cction  by  Sir  Elias 

who   nromised   aid 

out  the 


>vd.r»  Ciusely  fol- 

Romancer  and 

scene  according  to  the 

•^pi»ii  ^^1  i  nc  time  is  certain,  March 

20,   14 1 2,  ;ents  are  variously  related. 


"  Placed  upon  a  cushion  in  his  sight  " 

rhotograviire  from  the  t>aiHting  by  /'.  Artt.m 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  243 

Perhaps  Trussel,  without  abandoning  all  romance, 
has  preserved  the  essential  truths  of  the  story ;  and 
with  his  account  I  conclude  the  subject.  Having 
stated  that  the  king  was  at  Westminster,  preparing  a 
crusade,  he  adds :  "  The  enemy  of  mankind  seized 
upon  him  with  an  apoplexy,  the  fits  whereof  divers 
times  would  show  him  dead  to  those  about  him ;  but 
ever  upon  his  recovery  again  of  sense,  he  would  de- 
mand for  his  crown,  which  he  appointed,  all  the  time 
of  his  sickness,  to  be  placed  upon  a  cushion  in  his 
sight.  At  length,  the  extremity  of  his  disease  in- 
creasing, he  lay  as  though  all  his  vital  spirits  had 
forsaken  him,  insomuch  that  those  that  were  about 
him  deemed  him  dead,  and  covered  his  face.  The 
prince  having  notice  thereof,  came  and  took  away 
the  crown,  and  departed.  The  father  reviving,  de- 
manded for  the  crown ;  and  hearing  that  the  prince 
had  taken  it,  he  sends  for  him,  and  angrily  demandeth 
his  reason  of  his  so  doing ;  to  whom  the  prince,  with 
a  confident  brow,  made  an  answer,  that  in  his  and  all 
men's  judgment  there  present,  he  was  dead ;  and 
then  *I  being  next  heir  apparent  to  the  same,  took 
it  as  my  indubitable  right,  not  as  yours,  but  mine.* 
*Well,'  said  the  king,  and  sighed,  *fair  son,  what 
right  I  had  to  it  God  knoweth.'  *But,'  saith  the 
prince,  *  if  you  die  king,  I  doubt  not  to  hold  the  gar- 
land as  you  have  done,  with  my  sword,  against  all 
opposers.'  *Then,'  saith  the  king,  *I  refer  all  to 
God,  but  charge  thee  on  my  blessing,  and  as  thou 
wilt  answer  it  before  the  tribunal  of  God,  that  thou 
minister  the  laws  indifferently ;  that  thou  ease  the 
oppressed ;  that  thou  avoid  flatterers ;  that  thou  do 
not  defer  justice,  nor  be  sparing  of  mercy,  but  punish 


244       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  oppressors  of  thy  people ;  and  suffer  not  officers 
to  make  their  places  the  stalking-horses  to  their  will. 
So  shalt  thou  obtain  favour  of  God,  and  love  of  thy 
subjects  ;  who,  whilst  they  have  wealth,  so  long  shalt 
thou  have  obedience ;  but  being  made  poor  by  oppres- 
sion, will  be  ever  ready  to  stir  and  make  insurrections.' 
And  so,  turning  about,  said,  *  God  bless  thee,  and 
have  mercy  upon  me ! '  And  so  he  gave  up  the 
ghost  in  a  chamber  of  the  Abbot  of  Westminster, 
which  the  servants  there  called  Jerusalem." 

Thus  died  Bolingbroke.  On  Trinity  Sunday  his 
obsequies  were  performed  at  Canterbury,  Henry  of 
Monmouth  being  present,  making  offering  at  the  altar, 
and  depositing  his  father  by  the  side  of  that  Black 
Prince,  Edward  of  Woodstock,  whose  son  he  had 
deposed  and  murdered. 

Henry  of  Monmouth  occupied  the  throne  from 
141 3  to  1422.  Within  that  period  he  took  advantage 
of  the  anarchy  in  France  to  invade  that  kingdom  with 
thirty  thousand  men ;  whence,  after  the  surrender  of 
Harfleur,  he  was  about  to  return  with  his  enfeebled 
army,  when  he  was  encountered  at  Agincourt  by  a 
French  force  quadruple  his  own  ;  which  he  conquered 
with  little  loss  to  himself,  but  with  that  of  ten  thou- 
sand slain,  and  fifteen  thousand  prisoners,  on  the  part 
of  the  foe.  The  victory  led  him  to  become  heir  of  the 
French  throne  and  husband  of  Katherine,  the  king's 
daughter.  In  the  midst  of  a  triumphant  career  he 
was  cut  off,  through  the  unskilfulness  of  his  doctors, 
leaving  his  English  crown  and  his  French  heirship 
to  his  only  son,  Henry  VI.,  at  that  time  but  a  few 
months  old.     This   occurred  in    1422 ;   and  by  the 


HENRY  OF  MONMOUTH  245 

time  that  Henry  VI.  had  reached  man's  estate,  Joan 
of  Arc  had  stripped  the  English  of  nearly  all  their 
conquests  in  France.  England  itself  had  sunk  into 
a  condition  of  extreme  misery ;  and,  one  bright  fea- 
ture of  a  generally  gloomy  lot,  Henry  VI.  had  es- 
poused, in  1445,  Margaret  of  Anjou,  daughter  of 
Rene,  titular  King  of  Sicily  and  Jerusalem,  and  the 
prince  of  troubadours. 

This  ill-matched  pair,  king  almost  too  bashful  to 
look  his  fair  wife  in  the  face,  she  as  energetic  and  as 
ambitious  as  she  was  beautiful  and  accomplished, 
were  married  at  Titchfield  Abbey,  on  the  2  2d  of 
April,  1445.  The  bridegroom  was  in  his  twenty- 
second  year,  the  bride  in  her  sixteenth ;  and  nearly 
nine  years  elapsed  before  a  son,  an  only  child,  was 
bom  to  them,  —  first  of  the  three  young  and  hapless 
Edwards.  I  will  add,  by  the  way,  that  Henry  VI. 
was  the  last  English-bom  and  first-born  son  of  an 
English-born  king,  who  succeeded  his  father  on  the 
throne,  until  the  accession  of  George  IV.,  in  1820. 
The  intervening  period  comprises  an  extent  of  up- 
wards of  four  hundred  years. 


248       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Edward  of  Windsor ;  and  old  and  young  soldiers 
might  be  expected  to  augur  well  of  the  namesake  of 
the  Black  Prince. 

Save  that  he  had  no  royal  gossips,  he  was  right 
royally  christened.  Waynflete  of  Winchester  was 
the  bishop  who  held  him  at  the  font,  around  which 
was  spread  a  score  of  yards  of  russet  cloth  of  gold, 
and  on  this  stood  Cardinal  Kemp  (Archbishop  of 
Canterbury),  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  and  the  Duchess 
of  Buckingham,  the  sponsors.  The  monks  of  West- 
minster were  liberal  with  their  tapers,  flinging  light 
on  the  baby  whose  christening  mantle  cost  the  ex- 
travagant sum  of  £SS4  i^i*.  Sd.  Five  thousand 
pounds  sterling  of  our  present  coin  would  not  repre- 
sent the  value,  and  how  Henry's  treasury  ever  sup- 
plied it,  save  by  pawning  the  royal  jewels,  a  course  to 
which  he  and  other  English  kings  have  been  com- 
pelled, I  cease  to  conjecture,  for  I  can  find  nothing 
that  will  account  for  this  marvel. 

At  the  ceremony  at  the  abbey,  the  king  was  not 
present.  His  mental  imbecility  even  then  oppressed 
him.  The  mother,  however,  was  there ;  and  within 
and  beyond  the  abbey,  Yorkist  partisans  scorningly 
remarked  that  the  king's  absence  did  not  imply  that 
of  the  father  of  the  child.  The  young  queen  was 
already  assailed  by  calumny,  charging  her  with  a 
conspiracy  to  force  an  infant  impostor  upon  the 
heirship  of  England. 

Henry  was  in  retirement  at  Windsor.  After  the 
new  year,  1454,  a  trial  was  made  upon  his  feelings 
and  his  powers  of  observation,  both  of  which  had, 
during  several  months,  continued  inactive,  by  show- 
ing  him    his   infant    son.      The    child's    godfather. 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  249 

Buckingham,  bore  him  in  his  arms  into  the  king's 
chamber.  Henry  looked  on  incurious  and  uncon- 
scious. Buckingham  performed  his  task  tenderly, 
presented  the  little  prince  to  his  father  in  "goodly 
wise,"  and  earnestly  besought  the  king  to  bless  the 
child.  The  king  remained  untouched  and  mute. 
The  duke  continued  his  appeal,  but  Henry  also  con- 
tinued unaffected,  heedless,  silent.  And  then  Mar- 
garet herself  advanced,  hoping  to  have  more  success 
than  Buckingham.  The  young  mother  took  her  boy 
in  her  arms,  stood  with  him  before  the  king,  and 
showing  the  child  to  the  father,  asked  him  to  bless 
his  son.  For  a  moment  she  had  hope  that  the  magic 
of  her  voice  and  presence  had  not  failed,  for  the  king 
turned  his  eyes  toward  her  and  upon  the  child,  but 
they  fell  again  languidly  the  mind  discerning  nothing 
of  that  on  which  they  had  idly  rested.  And  so,  in 
disappointment,  Margaret  and  the  ducal  godfather 
retired  with  the  prince. 

Not  till  the  happy  Christmas  time  of  this  year, 
1454,  was  any  change  in  this  mournful  condition 
worked,  for  the  better.  On  that  day,  however,  the 
mental  health  of  the  king  began  to  amend,  and  there- 
with his  sense  of  piety,  marked  by  an  order,  given  by 
himself  to  his  almoner,  to  ride  to  Canterbury  with  an 
offering ;  and  to  his  secretary  to  repair  to  St.  Ed- 
ward's shrine  in  Westminster  Abbey,  to  perform  the 
same  grateful  service  in  the  king's  name.  Encour- 
aged by  this  spontaneous  act,  Margaret,  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  very  day  on  which  intelligence  of  it  was 
communicated  to  her,  went  into  the  king's  chamber, 
carrying  her  child  in  her  arms.  Henry  recognised 
one  and  looked  joyfully  on  both,  asking,  as  he  gazed 


250       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

upon  the  fair  and  delicate  boy  by  what  name  he  had 
been  called.  The  queen  replied,  that  the  prince 
had  been  named  "Edward."  At  that  name  con- 
sciousness and  memory  appeared  to  acquire  strength, 
for  the  king  at  the  mention  of  it  threw  up  his  arms 
and  thanked  the  Lord.  And  (writes  Margaret  to 
John  Paston  in  the  collection  of  letters  made  by  Sir 
John  Fenn)  "he  said  he  never  knew,  till  that  time, 
nor  wist  not  what  was  said  to  him,  nor  wist  not  where 
he  had  been,  whiles  he  hath  been  sick  till  now.  And 
he  asked  who  were  godfathers,  and  the  queen  told 
him,  and  he  was  well  content." 

Meanwhile,  however,  much  had  been  done  during 
the  king's  illness  at  which,  whether  he  were  well 
content  or  otherwise,  there  are  no  means  of  discov- 
ering. Parliament  had  appointed  Richard  of  York 
"  Protector  and  defender  of  the  king,"  offices  to  be 
exercised  "during  the  king's  pleasure,  or  until  such 
time  as  Edward  the  prince  should  come  to  age  of 
discretion."  Patents,  which  ran  in  the  king's  name, 
notified  various  grants,  among  which  was  one  which 
settled  on  the  infant  prince  the  same  amount  of 
revenue  as  his  father  had  enjoyed  at  the  same  early 
age ;  and  another  received  the  sanction  of  Lords  and 
Commons  for  creating  young  Edward  Prince  of 
Wales. 

While  some  historians  state  that  Edward  was 
created  Prince  of  Wales  in  his  first,  others  declare 
it  to  have  been  in  his  fourth  year.  The  earlier 
period  is  the  correct  one,  and  the  circumstance  is 
only  worth  noting  as  it  has  reference  to  the  first 
heir  apparent  who  was  created  to  that  title  at  so 
tender  an  age.     "  Worshipful    sir,"    writes  William 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  251 

Botoner,  "to  my  Master  Paston"  (in  the  collection 
above  named),  "  Worshipful  sir  and  my  good  master, 
after  due  recommendations,  with  all  my  true  services 
preceding,  like  you  to  wit  (know)  that  as  to  novel- 
ties, etc.,  the  prince  shall  be  created  at  Windsor, 
upon  Pentecost  Sunday,  the  Chancellor  (Neville,  Earl 
of  Salisbury),  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  many 
other  lords  of  estate  present  with  the  queen."  The 
letter  containing  this  passage  is  dated  "Saturday,  8 
June,  1454,"  and  the  next  day,  Pentecost  Sunday,  as 
Sir  John  Fenn  remarks,  "  was  the  9th  ;  whereas  the 
same  festival,  in  1457,  fell  on  the  5th  of  June,  of 
which  year's  festival  a  writer  could  not  speak  on  the 
9th  in  the  future  tense." 

But  whatever  the  date,  no  happiness  accrued  with 
the  title  to  the  young  wearer  of  it.  He  was  not  yet 
two  years  old  when  that  series  of  battles  began,  in 
1455,  which  ended  with  his  own  murder,  and  the 
entire  downfall  of  the  bouse  of  Lancaster  in  1471. 
Those  sanguinary  contests,  amounting  to  twelve, 
divide  themselves  into  three  parts.  During  the  first 
eight  years  of  this  unparalleled  struggle,  eight  battles 
were  fought,  in  six  of  which  the  Yorkists  carried  off 
the  victory.  During  nearly  eight  years  that  followed, 
the  queen  and  Prince  of  Wales  were  refugees  in 
France.  Two  actions  took  place  while  the  royal  fugi- 
tives were  abroad,  in  one  of  which  each  faction  gained 
a  triumph.  The  two  concluding  contests  which  fol- 
lowed were  alike  favourable  to  York,  and  Tewkes- 
bury confirmed  the  promise  made  by  the  first  struggle 
at  St.  Albans. 

Throughout  this  period,  the  young  Prince  of  Wales 
is,  with  slight  exceptions,  more  heard  of  than  seen. 


250       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

upon  the  fair  and  delicate  boy  by  what  name  he  had 
been  called.  The  queen  replied,  that  the  prince 
had  been  named  "Edward."  At  that  name  con- 
sciousness and  memory  appeared  to  acquire  strength, 
for  the  king  at  the  mention  of  it  threw  up  his  arms 
and  thanked  the  Lord.  And  (writes  Margaret  to 
John  Paston  in  the  collection  of  letters  made  by  Sir 
John  Fenn)  "he  said  he  never  knew,  till  that  time, 
nor  wist  not  what  was  said  to  him,  nor  wist  not  where 
he  had  been,  whiles  he  hath  been  sick  till  now.  And 
he  asked  who  were  godfathers,  and  the  queen  told 
him,  and  he  was  well  content." 

Meanwhile,  however,  much  had  been  done  during 
the  king's  illness  at  which,  whether  he  were  well 
content  or  otherwise,  there  are  no  means  of  discov- 
ering. Parliament  had  appointed  Richard  of  York 
"  Protector  and  defender  of  the  king,"  offices  to  be 
exercised  "during  the  king's  pleasure,  or  until  such 
time  as  Edward  the  prince  should  come  to  age  of 
discretion."  Patents,  which  ran  in  the  king's  name, 
notified  various  grants,  among  which  was  one  which 
settled  on  the  infant  prince  the  same  amount  of 
revenue  as  his  father  had  enjoyed  at  the  same  early 
age ;  and  another  received  the  sanction  of  Lords  and 
Commons  for  creating  young  Edward  Prince  of 
Wales. 

While  some  historians  state  that  Edward  was 
created  Prince  of  Wales  in  his  first,  others  declare 
it  to  have  been  in  his  fourth  year.  The  earlier 
period  is  the  correct  one,  and  the  circumstance  is 
only  worth  noting  as  it  has  reference  to  the  first 
heir  apparent  who  was  created  to  that  title  at  so 
tender  an  age.     "  Worshipful    sir,"    writes  William 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  251 

Botoner,  "to  my  Master  Paston"  (in  the  collection 
above  named),  "  Worshipful  sir  and  my  good  master, 
after  due  recommendations,  with  all  my  true  services 
preceding,  like  you  to  wit  (know)  that  as  to  novel- 
ties, etc.,  the  prince  shall  be  created  at  Windsor, 
upon  Pentecost  Sunday,  the  Chancellor  (Neville,  Earl 
of  Salisbury),  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  many 
other  lords  of  estate  present  with  the  queen."  The 
letter  containing  this  passage  is  dated  "Saturday,  8 
June,  1454,"  and  the  next  day,  Pentecost  Sunday,  as 
Sir  John  Fenn  remarks,  "  was  the  9th  ;  whereas  the 
same  festival,  in  1457,  fell  on  the  5th  of  June,  of 
which  year's  festival  a  writer  could  not  speak  on  the 
9th  in  the  future  tense." 

But  whatever  the  date,  no  happiness  accrued  with 
the  title  to  the  young  wearer  of  it.  He  was  not  yet 
two  years  old  when  that  series  of  battles  began,  in 
1455,  which  ended  with  his  own  murder,  and  the 
entire  downfall  of  the  house  of  Lancaster  in  1471. 
Those  sanguinary  contests,  amounting  to  twelve, 
divide  themselves  into  three  parts.  During  the  first 
eight  years  of  this  unparalleled  struggle,  eight  battles 
were  fought,  in  six  of  which  the  Yorkists  carried  off 
the  victory.  During  nearly  eight  years  that  followed, 
the  queen  and  Prince  of  Wales  were  refugees  in 
France.  Two  actions  took  place  while  the  royal  fugi- 
tives were  abroad,  in  one  of  which  each  faction  gained 
a  triumph.  The  two  concluding  contests  which  fol- 
lowed were  alike  favourable  to  York,  and  Tewkes- 
bury confirmed  the  promise  made  by  the  first  struggle 
at  St.  Albans. 

Throughout  this  period,  the  young  Prince  of  Wales 
is,  with  slight  exceptions,  more  heard  of  than  seen. 


252        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Till  the  fatal  day  of  Tewkesbury  he  is  generally 
covered  by  his  mother's  robe.  Now  and  again,  he 
is  near  a  stricken  field,  but  we  only  catch  a  distant 
glimpse  of  the  boy,  generally  fleeing  with  his  bold 
but  tender-hearted  mother.  It  is  only  at  Tewkes- 
bury we  see  him  close  at  hand,  armed  and  striking, 
more  gracefully  than  forcibly,  in  his  own  cause. 

I  have  said  that  the  first  of  these  contests  took 
place  at  St.  Albans.  It  was  brought  on  by  an 
attempt  of  the  Duke  of  York  to  enter  London,  seize 
upon  the  king,  and  recover  the  supremacy  he  had 
held  during  Henry's  illness.  To  intercept  him, 
Henry,  or  rather  his  friend  the  Duke  of  Somerset, 
gave  the  Duke  of  York  battle  near  the  town  just 
named.  While  it  was  fought  and  lost,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  in  the  good  keeping  of  his  mother  at 
Greenwich,  where  she  heard  of  that  calamitous  May 
day  in  which  Lancaster  lost  five  thousand  friends, 
York  scarcely  more  than  as  many  hundred,  and  the 
king  himself  was  taken.  He  had  quietly  walked 
into  the  thatched  cottage  of  a  village  baker,  and 
there,  as  quietly,  yielded  himself  captive  to  York, 
expressing  no  other  feeling  but  horror  at  the  mutual 
slaughter  of  Englishmen. 

The  household  at  Greenwich  was  alarmed,  and  the 
prince's  godfather,  Buckingham,  felt  that  if  his  god- 
son's inheritance  was  imperilled  when  York  made  of 
Henry  but  "  a  Whitsuntide  lord,"  it  was  even  worse 
now  that  the  king  was  a  captive.  With  York  restored 
to  the  protectorate,  the  prince's  rights  were  not 
ignored,  and  whether  child  and  mother  were  under 
surveillance  at  Hertford  or  Greenwich,  the  claims  of 
the  former   were  upheld   by  Parliament.     That   as- 


EDWARD  OF   WESTMINSTER  253 

sembly  granted  him  ten  thousand  marks  annually  till 
he  should  reach  the  age  of  eight  years,  and  double 
that  amount  for  the  following  six  years.  This  sum 
was  for  his  wardrobe  and  pay  of  servants.  His  own 
diet  and  residence  were  ordered  to  be  provided  for 
him  in  the  king's  court. 

When  Margaret  subsequently  contrived  to  obtain 
a  parliamentary  decree  which  restored  the  king  to 
her  and  to  himself,  she  might  have  held  her  own 
more  securely  had  she  been  less  daring  and  ambi- 
tious. To  avoid  the  Yorkist  plotters  in  London, 
Margaret  made  a  progress  into  Warwickshire,  with 
the  king  and  prince,  hawking  and  hunting  by  the 
way,  enjoying  various  pastimes,  and  making  a  joyous 
sojourn  at  Coventry,  where  she  was  personally  popu- 
lar, and  the  people  were  the  staunch  upholders  of 
her  husband  and  son. 

Thereupon  followed  a  reconciliation  between  the 
illustrious  adversaries,  and  peace  seemed  for  awhile 
to  smile  promisingly  upon  the  land.  But  sharp- 
sighted  personages  beheld  wonderful  things,  —  huge 
cocks  rising  from  the  sea,  and  crowing  like  thunder ; 
and  gigantic  whales  floundering  in  the  Thames ;  and 
births  very  much  opposed  to  the  order  of  nature ; 
and  they  naturally  concluded  that  mischief  was  por- 
tended. Then,  after  the  return  of  the  court  to 
London,  quarrels  ensued  and  increased  in  intensity 
till  the  Earl  of  Salisbury  flew  to  arms ;  and,  in  1459, 
the  prince's  inheritance  was  once  more  in  peril. 

Now,  young  Edward  possessed  in  Margaret  of 
Anjou  a  mother  as  ambitious  as  she  was  energetic. 
Her  ambition,  however,  was  rather  to  secure  her 
son's  power  than  establish  her  own,  and  although  she 


2  54       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

and  her  foreign  kindred  ruled  the  realm  and  applied 
the  revenue,  as  seemed  most  fitting  to  them,  the 
succession  of  Prince  Edward  was  the  object.  Mean- 
while, her  favourites  •* peeled  the  poor  people;"  and 
the  popular  voice,  in  return,  again  denied  the  legiti- 
macy of  the  prince ;  ridiculing  the  lawfulness  of  his 
heirship  as  a  Lancastrian,  and  declaring  him  to  be  a 
bastard  Lancastrian,  "gotten  in  Coventry."  Mar- 
garet speedily,  however,  made  use  of  the  prince  to 
further  her  own  purpose.  "  She  dreading  that  he 
should  not  succeed  his  father  in  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, allied  unto  her  all  the  knights  and  squires  of 
Cheshire,  for  their  benevolence,  and  held  open  house- 
hold among  them ;  and  made  her  son,  called  the 
prince,  give  a  livery  of  swans  to  all  the  gentlemen  of 
the  county,  and  to  many  other  throughout  the  land, 
trusting  through  their  strength  to  make  her  son  king  ; 
making  privy  means  to  some  of  the  lords  of  England 
for  to  stir  the  king  that  he  should  resign  the  crown  to 
her  son  ;  but  she  could  not  bring  her  purpose  about." 
So  writes  the  author  of  "An  English  Chronicle," 
seventeen  years  subsequent  to  the  period  to  which 
the  above  passage  refers,  and,  though  his  statement 
may  not  be  in  the  main  true,  it  reflects  much  of  the 
feeling  and  opinions  of  the  day. 

However  this  may  be,  a  present  issue  was  fought 
out  on  the  13th  of  September,  1459,  ^^  Blore  Heath, 
in  Shropshire,  where  Salisbury  routed  the  Lancas- 
trian army,  under  Lord  Audley,  slaying  that  leader  in 
the  fight. 

York,  thus  strengthened,  bent  himself  to  increase 
of  effort,  to  counteract  which,  full  pardon  was  offered 
by  Henry  to  all  who  would  lay  down  their  arms. 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  255 

Margaret's  voice  was  heard  in  the  proclamation,  and 
the  Yorkists  returned  for  answer  that  "  there  was  no 
trusting  the  king's  promises  as  long  as  the  hen 
crowed."  To  her,  all  activity,  good  or  evil,  was 
attributed ;  and  not  altogether  without  reason.  The 
king  was  at  Coleshill,  in  Warwickshire,  when  Mar- 
garet saw  the  battle  of  Blore  Heath  fought,  especially 
to  make  his  residence  there  secure.  She  saw  Audley 
defeated  from  the  tower  of  Macclestone  Church,  and 
thence  fled  to  the  prince  at  Eccleshall  Castle.  Henry 
had  to  move,  or  rather  to  be  removed,  from  Coleshill, 
and  he  was  so  far  interested  in  the  matter  as  to 
faintly  ask  those  who  were  carrying  him  off,  **  Which 
side  had  gained  the  day  ? " 

Distrust  of  Margaret  led  to  the  next  slaughter,  the 
dreadful  two  hours  near  Northampton,  in  July,  1460. 
From  seven  to  nine  o'clock  on  that  summer  morning, 
Margaret  and  young  Edward  looked  upon  the  fight, 
at  a  distance,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  beheld  that 
other  Edward  who  was  to  rob  him  of  crown  and  life 
—  Edward,  Earl  of  March,  eldest  son  of  Richard  of 
York  —  win  a  triumph  of  which  Margaret  thought  her 
husband  secure.  That  husband  followed  his  wont 
when  beaten,  quietly  sat  down  in  his  tent,  and  there 
solitarily  awaited  his  being  taken  prisoner. 

From  the  field,  in  which  the  prince's  godfather, 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  was  slain,  the  king  was 
carried  off  prisoner  to  London,  while  Margaret  fled 
with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  first  to  Durham,  thence  by 
Eggeshall  to  Chester,  and  finally  to  Harlech  Castle, 
in  Wales.  There  followed  the  august  fugitives  a 
retinue  of  only  eight  persons,  and  these  went  not 
unmolested  on  their  way.      The  queen  had  jewels 


256        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

with  her  to  a  considerable  amount,  and  before  enter- 
ing Wales  she  was  stopped  and  robbed  of  them,  she 
escaping  with  the  prince,  while  the  robbers  were 
inspecting  a  booty  which  is  said  to  have  been  of  the 
value  of  ten  thousand  marks. 

Poor  as  they  were,  the  wearied  pair  found  refuge 
amongst  faithful  Welsh  lieges.  Meanwhile  extraor- 
dinary events  were  taking  place  in  London,  where 
York  was  paramount,  and  exacting  from  the  Lancas- 
trian king  and  the  Parliament  the  abolition  of  all 
right  to  the  throne  of  Prince  Edward  of  Westminster. 
Therewith  must  be  recorded  a  circumstance  of  some 
singularity,  namely,  that  in  this  year,  1460,  there 
were  two  Princes  of  Wales  in  England.  The  rival  of 
Prince  Edward  of  Westminster  was  this  Richard 
Plantagenet,  Duke  of  York,  who  was  so  soon  after- 
ward to  be  slain  at  Wakefield,  but  who  now  laid 
claim  to  the  crown,  as  nearest  heir,  which  could  not 
be  gainsaid,  of  Richard  IL  In  the  year  just  named, 
holding  (as  I  have  said)  King  Henry  in  his  power, 
the  now  Yorkist  Parliament  recognised  his  claim  as 
heir,  and  "it  was  ordained  by  the  said  Parliament 
that  the  said  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  should  be 
called  Prince  of  Wales,  Duke  of  Cornwall,  and  Earl 
of  Chester,  and  he  was  made  also  by  the  same  Parlia- 
ment Protector  of  England."  '  This  title  was  con- 
ferred on  Richard  Plantagenet,  on  the  last  day  of 
October,  1460,  and  he  possessed  it,  without,  however, 
publicly  bearing  it,  just  two  months,  being  slain  at 
Wakefield  on  the  last  day  of  the  following  Decem- 
ber. 

The  triumph  for  Lancaster,  at  Wakefield,  was  thus 
>  English  Chronicle.     Edited  by  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Davies. 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  257 

brought  about.  Margaret  and  Edward  leaving  Har- 
lech, reached  Scotland,  where  they  at  first  took  up 
their  abode  at  the  monastery  of  Linclooden,  near 
Dumfries.  At  this  monastery  conferences  took  place 
between  the  Scottish  queen,  Mary  of  Gueldres,  and 
Margaret,  which  lasted  twelve  days,  at  which  were 
drank,  doubtless  by  the  lords  who  "assisted,"  three 
pipes  of  French  wine!  The  two  queens  had  each 
a  young  son,  but  the  Scottish  boy,  James  III.,  was  in 
possession  of  his  inheritance,  while  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  now  even  his  title  of  prince,  as  indicating 
his  heirship,  denied. 

In  Scotland,  however,  his  rights  were  recognised, 
and  the  boy  lived  the  life  of  a  prince,  lodging  in  royal 
palaces,  riding  abroad,  and  having  grooms  to  attend 
him.  Better  than  all  these,  the  Scottish  government 
lent  his  mother  aid  in  money  and  in  troops,  and  with 
them  she  made  that  dash  into  England  which  was 
gallantly  met  by  Richard  of  York,  at  Wakefield,  to 
his  utter  ruin,  the  loss  of  his  life,  and  the  slaying 
of  his  own  young  son,  Rutland,  screaming  for  mercy, 
at  the  hands  of  the  ruthless  Clifford,  who  knew 
it  not. 

If  the  Prince  of  Wales  beheld  this  battle,  or  the 
scenes  of  revenge  and  cruelty  which  followed  it,  he 
had  a  sorry  sight  for  one  so  young.  But  he  had,  in 
such  case,  little  leisure  to  dwell  upon  acts  for  which, 
indeed,  ample  vengeance  was  ultimately  taken.  First, 
on  the  Candlemas  Day  next  succeeding,  when  Ed- 
ward, Earl  of  March,  routed  a  Lancastrian  army 
at  Mortimer's  Cross,  with  fearful  slaughter  during 
and  after  the  fight.  The  queen,  meanwhile,  pushed 
toward  London,  but  was  encountered  by  the  way,  at 


258       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

St.  Albans,  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  who  carried 
King  Henry  captive  in  his  train. 

The  fight  which  here  took  place,  on  Shrove  Tues- 
day, is  said  to  have  been  the  first  in  which  the  Prince 
of  Wales  was  actually  concerned,  but  even  here  we 
have  no  means  of  following  him  through  the  fray, 
though  we  have  the  assurance  of  his  mother  that 
he  bore  himself  gallantly  where  his  presence  was 
required.  If  he  was  really  in  "the  thick  of  it,'* 
he  must  have  shared  in  the  repulse  by  Warwick's 
terrible  bowmen,  and  the  counter  repulse  which  drove 
Warwick  back  on  his  camp,  on  Barnet  Heath.  The 
issue  of  the  bloody  struggle  here  left  Margaret  mis- 
tress of  the  field,  and  it  was  when  her  surviving 
enemies  were  in  confused  flight  that  intelligence  was 
brought  her  of  the  king  being  alone,  save  with  three 
or  four  who  remained  with  him  in  a  tent  within  the 
hostile  camp. 

The  king  had  despatched  one  Thomas  Hoe,  a  bar- 
rister, to  thank  the  victors  for  their  pains,  and  to 
express  his  desire  of  meeting  his  deliverers.  With 
a  noble  retinue  the  queen  and  prince  moved  forward 
to  the  king's  tent,  where  a  joyful  reunion  took  place. 
The  exultation  of  Margaret  was  uncontrollable,  and 
it  was  pardonable  when  she  presented  her  son  to  his 
father,  requesting  him  at  the  same  time  to  make  a 
knight  of  the  gallant  boy,  who  certainly  witnessed  the 
conflict  from  a  very  short  distance,  but  was  not  more 
actively  engaged  in  it  than  Margaret  herself.  "At 
the  queen's  request,"  says  Trussell,  "  Henry  honoured 
with  the  order  of  knighthood  thirty  that  had  fought 
against  the  part  where  he  was.  The  prince  likewise 
was  by  him  dubbed  knight." 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  259 

King,  queen,  and  prince  slept  at  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Albans  that  night,  after  a  solemn  service  of  thanks- 
giving, which  the  abbot  and  priests  would  have  offered 
with  equal  fervour  and  sincerity  had  victory  sat  upon 
the  helms  of  the  Yorkists,  and  Warwick  had  been 
there  to  command  the  performance.  On  the  follow- 
ing morning,  that  of  Ash  Wednesday,  executions  took 
place  as  if  to  intimate  that  success  had  not  taught  the 
victors  mercy.  In  this  work  of  vengeance  the  Prince 
of  Wales  grievously  distinguished  himself,  if  confi- 
dence is  to  be  placed  in  the  author  of  the  "  English 
Chronicle,"  who  states  that  Lord  Bonwyle,  having 
attempted  to  escape  with  Warwick  and  the  other 
nobles  who  had  recently  held  the  king  in  captivity, 
the  king  had  induced  him  to  remain  with  him,  on 
oath  that  he  should  receive  no  bodily  harm.  "  Never- 
theless, notwithstanding  that  surety,"  says  the  chron- 
icler, "  at  instance  of  the  queen,  the  Duke  of  Exeter, 
and  the  Earl  of  Devonshire,  by  judgment  of  him  that 
was  called  the  prince,  a  child,  he  was  beheaded  at  St. 
Albans."  But  the  English  chronicler  was  an  arrant 
Yorkist,  recognising  no  virtue  in  a  Lancastrian,  save 
valour,  nor  any  vice  in  a  Yorkist  at  all ;  and  I  am  not 
disposed  to  place  much  faith  in  his  assertion  that  a 
boy  so  young  could  have  been  allowed  to  have  any 
voice  in  the  sentencing  to  death  a  man  of  any  quality, 
much  less  a  man  whose  safety  had  been  guaranteed 
on  the  word  of  a  king. 

Yet  who  can  say  ?  Margaret  herself  let  loose  her 
northern  troops  upon  the  country  to  plunder  it  up  to 
the  gates  of  London,  through  which,  soon  after,  the 
Londoners  righteously  refused  her  entrance.  The 
Prince    of  Wales   issued   a   proclamation,  in  which 


2  6o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

he,  or  rather  his  mother  in  his  name,  disclaimed  all 
intention  of  inflicting  injury  on  person  or  property. 
Is  it  likely,  he  asks,  that  he,  "  descended  of  the  blood 
royal,  and  inheriting  the  preeminence  of  the  realm, 
should  intend  the  destruction  of  that  city  which  is  the 
king  our  lord's  greatest  treasure?"  The  citizens 
would  not  weigh  probabilities.  Their  refusal  drove 
back  Margaret  and  her  friends  to  the  north,  and  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1461,  the  announcement  of  the 
accession  of  the  eldest  son  of  Richard  of  York  to 
the  throne,  by  the  title  of  Edward  IV.,  sounded  as  a 
death-knell  in  the  hearts  of  the  Lancastrians. 

A  fortnight  later,  king,  queen,  and  prince  were 
sheltering  in  York,  their  army  standing  between 
them  and  the  forces  of  King  Edward.  The  two 
opposing  powers  came  into  collision  at  Towton,  near 
Tadcaster,  in  Yorkshire,  on  Palm  Sunday.  There 
took  place  that  fierce  contest  of  ten  hours*  duration, 
amid  fog,  then  snow  and  howling  wind,  at  the  end  of 
which  nearly  thirty-seven  thousand  bodies,  dead  or 
dying  on  the  field,  attested  to  the  obstinacy  of  the 
combatants  and  the  hard-won  prize  carried  off  by 
Edward  IV. 

The  issue  of  the  day  drove  the  prince  and  his  royal 
parents  from  York  to  Alnwick,  where  they  tarried 
some  time  securely  in  the  castle  of  the  Percy  whose 
body  lay  on  Towton  field.  But  the  Yorkists  drove 
northward,  and  Margaret  and  Henry  carried  the  heir 
of  England  into  Scotland,  wandering  with  him  through 
Galloway,  and  finally  obtaining  shelter  in  the  old  town 
of  Kirkcudbright.  To  hard  straits  were  the  royal 
party  here  driven,  but  they  were  not  without  hope 
of  recovering  all  they  had  lost.      Henry  promised 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  261 

English  dukedoms  to  Scottish  earls  for  their  aid. 
Queen  Margaret,  casting  her  eyes  on  the  young 
Scottish  princess,  her  namesake,  promised  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  should  take  her  for  wife,  and  the 
throne  of  England  be  her  future  seat,  if  present  suc- 
cour were  yielded  them  in  their  extremity.  "The 
King  of  Scots"  (says  Trussell)  "comforteth  them 
with  promise  of  relief,  but  maketh  a  sure  bargain, 
and  receiveth,  in  lieu  of  a  pension  to  be  assigned  to 
King  Henry  during  his  abode  there,  from  him,  upon 
St.  Mark's  Day,  the  town  and  castle  of  Berwick-upon- 
Tweed,  to  such  poor  shifts  was  this  potent  king  driven 
to  pawn  his  best  fortress  for  bare  food."  This  picture 
is  clearly  not  overcharged,  for  as  Henry  pawned  his 
fortress,  so  did  Margaret  pawn  a  gold  cup  to  the 
Scottish  queen  for  ;£ioo,  she  being  in  need  of  ready 
money,  and  Mary  of  Gueldres  probably  admiring 
Margaret's  golden  cup. 

In  other  respects,  however,  the  royal  fugitives  were 
not  ill-cared  for.  Old  palace  apartments  were  newly 
furnished  for  them,  provisions  were  liberally  supplied 
to  them,  Margaret  drew  upon  the  government  for 
about  j£$o  sterling  per  month,  and  the  dignity 
of  our  young  Prince  of  Wales  seems  to  have  been 
fairly  sustained,  inasmuch  as  the  exchequer-rolls 
of  Scotland  make  mention  of  supplying  "grain  and 
provender  for  six  horses  of  the  Prince  of  England  in 
Falkland  during  twenty-three  days,  by  order  of  our 
lady  the  queen." 

Nevertheless,  comfort  and  plenty  were  not  the 
attendants  of  each  coming  day.  Queen,  king,  and 
prince  on  one  occasion  spent  five  days  together  with 
one  day's  provision  of  bread,  and  one  solitary  herring 


2  62        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

between  the  three  !  Of  persons  so  destitute,  of  course 
the  credit  was  not  very  good,  and  we  are  told  of  the 
royal  party  being  at  mass  when,  the  queen  finding 
herself  without  money  for  the  usual  offering,  asked  a 
Scottish  archer  at  her  side  to  lend  her  a  small  sum 
for  the  purpose.  The  Scot  weighed  the  request,  and 
considered  it,  and  did  not  like  it.  Neither  would  he 
be  uncourteous  to  a  lady  and  a  queen.  Slowly,  there- 
fore, did  he  take  his  bag  from  his  pouch,  and  reluc- 
tantly drew  therefrom  the  smallest  current  coin  of 
the  realm,  —  one  shabby  half -farthing,  and  unwillingly 
dropping  it  into  the  queen's  hand,  respectfully  invited 
her  to  remember  that  it  was  only  lent  —  not  given  ! 

Margaret  accepted  the  insult  and  the  loan ;  and 
she  acknowledged  in  after  years  that,  of  all  the  pain- 
ful incidents  of  her  adversity,  the  most  painful  and 
the  least  tolerable  was  this  fact  of  the  ungallant 
Scottish  archer  and  his  wretched  half-farthing. 

In  Scotland  the  royal  refugees  remained  till  April, 
1462.  They  were  not  idle  all  that  time.  Emissaries 
on  the  Continent  and  in  England  were  fruitlessly 
active  on  their  behalf.  Margaret  was  impatient,  but 
two  of  these  emissaries,  Hungerford  and  Whytting- 
ham,  addressed  a  joint  letter  to  her,  in  which  they 
said  :  **  Madam,  fear  not,  but  be  of  good  comfort, 
and  beware  ye  venture  not  your  person,  nor  my  lord 
the  prince,  by  sea,  till  ye  have  other  word  from  us, 
unless  your  person  cannot  be  sure  where  you  are, 
and  extreme  necessity  drive  ye  thence." 

That  necessity  soon  presented  itself.  Margaret 
was  at  Kirkcudbright  when  she  suddenly  heard  of 
the  presence  of  Warwick  and  a  train  of  Yorkist 
nobles   at    Dumfries,    only   a   morning's   ride    from 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  263 

thence.  Warwick  came  there  as  a  wooer,  by  proxy, 
from  Edward  IV.,  who  sought,  or  affected  to  seek, 
the  Scottish  queen  in  marriage.  Margaret,  however, 
suspected  that  something  more  serious  than  wooing 
was  intended,  and  procuring  pecuniary  aid  from  mer- 
chants and  princes,  who  alike  took  interest  for  their 
money,  she  set  sail  with  her  son  from  Kirkcudbright, 
and  landed  in  France.  For  a  loan  from  Louis  XL, 
to  meet  with  whom  she  dragged  her  son  with  her 
from  town  to  town,  she  pawned  the  town  and  for- 
tress of  Calais,  —  an  act  which  made  her  execrable  in 
England.  She  procured  foreign  levies,  too,  and  with 
these  she  made  for  Northumberland,  in  the  month  of 
October.  Her  levies  failed  her,  her  landing  was 
opposed,  and,  in  a  fisherman's  boat,  the  queen.  Prince 
of  Wales,  and  Peter  de  Brez6,  a  faithful  Norman 
knight,  carried,  not  without  difficulty,  the  intelligence 
of  their  failure  into  Berwick. 

With  the  spring  of  1463,  however,  Margaret  was 
again  in  arms.  Henry,  who  had  been  shut  up  in 
Harlech  Castle,  had  joined  her.  Leaving  the  Prince 
of  Wales  in  Berwick,  Margaret  tempted  fortune  for 
awhile  without  her  son ;  it  was  the  first  time  that 
the  two  had  been  separated,  but  she  carried  the  prince 
with  her,  when  king  and  queen  made  that  forward 
movement  which  was  checked  by  Lord  Montague, 
King  Edward's  general,  at  Hexham.  Near  the  water 
of  Dowill  this  May  strife  occurred,  and  at  its  conclu- 
sion two  thousand  corpses  covered  the  ground,  and 
all  the  Lancastrians  who  could  fly  followed  or  rather 
outstripped  King  Henry,  who  was  so  closely  pursued 
that  three  of  his  body-guard  were  taken.  One  of 
these  was  supposed  to  be  the  king  himself,  for  he 


264       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

wore  the  monarch's  cap  with  a  double  golden  coronet, 
and  his  doing  so  saved,  as  was  intended,  the  person 
of  his  master. 

Margaret  let  her  husband  fly,  but  she  kept  the 
Prince  of  Wales  close  in  her  guard,  and,  hand  in  hand, 
the  wanderers  turned  toward  the  Scottish  border. 
Then  followed  incidents  which  seem  to  belong  to 
romance,  but  which  are  said  to  make  part  of  history. 
Queen  and  prince,  with  some  few  followers,  were 
attacked  by  robbers,  despoiled  of  their  costly  gar- 
ments, robbed  of  their  jewels,  and  only  saved  from 
violent  death  because  the  sons  of  violence  quarrelled 
and  fought  over  their  booty.  During  this  contest, 
Heaven  darkened  their  vision,  and  they  were  not 
conscious  of  the  queen's  appeal  to  a  knight  in  behalf 
of  her  son,  —  so  urgently  and  successfully  made,  that 
the  knight  in  question  took  the  young  Prince  of  Wales 
up  before  him  on  his  saddle,  and,  with  Margaret  en 
croupe^  rode  away  in  search  of  further  safety.  But 
the  roads  were  full  of  peril,  and  the  party  were 
obliged  to  strike  into  the  forest,  where  they  wandered 
about  in  ignorance  of  the  way,  and  where  the  knight 
either  abandoned  —  or  was  of  little  service  to  them. 
The  queen,  alone  of  the  three,  possessed  courage  or 
presence  of  mind,  and  these  valuable  qualities  she 
exhibited  in  a  remarkable  degree,  when  she  beheld 
advancing  toward  them  a  man,  hideous  of  aspect, 
wild  in  attire,  and  apparently  murderous  of  intention. 
Throughout  this  incident,  the  sole  anxiety  of  Mar- 
garet was  for  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Her  eyes  never 
ceased  to  return  to  him,  after  being  drawn  away  for 
an  instant,  and  her  hand  was  always  upon  or  near 
him.     Accordingly,  when  the  ferocious-looking  deni- 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  265 

zen  of  the  forest  of  Hexham  approached  with  out- 
stretched arm  and  weapon,  and  roughly  bade  the 
travellers  "  Stand  !  "  the  queen  threw  her  arm  round 
the  prince,  and  addressed  to  the  robber  such  a  volley 
of  strong  terms,  such  a  reproof  for  the  villainous  life 
he  was  leading,  such  a  heavy  sermon  on  the  conse- 
quences of  his  wicked  ways,  and  such  denunciations 
on  his  folly  as  well  as  his  wickedness,  —  that  one 
cannot  but  admire  the  meekness,  patience,  and  good 
nature  of  the  villain  in  question.  The  words  used 
were  of  the  very  harshest,  but  not  once  did  they 
irritate  the  highway  robber,  for  they  were  mingled 
with  terms  of  pity,  and  flattery,  and  beseeching,  and 
little  parentheses,  phrased  like  modem  tracts,  touch- 
ing sudden  conversion,  and  hints  at  the  advantages 
of  being  virtuous,  and,  finally,  confidential  communi- 
cations of  the  most  interesting  nature.  All  this  while 
the  Prince  of  Wales  modestly,  but  not  too  timidly, 
stood  at  his  mother's  side ;  and,  taking  him  by  the 
hand,  she  introduced  herself  and  boy  to  the  most 
extraordinary  of  assassins,  —  as  Queen  of  England 
and  Prince  of  Wales.  The  polite  robber  bowed,  and 
Margaret  continued  to  point  out  to  him  how  much 
greater  profit  he  might  derive  by  saving  than  by 
despoiling  them.  She  expatiated  on  her  son's  pros- 
pects, and  how,  if  they  were  realised,  the  robber 
might  one  day  be  made  a  gentleman  of.  Then  she 
added  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  information, 
which  might  have  been  better  reserved  for  the  rob- 
ber's wife,  who,  as  we  subsequently  learn,  lived  in 
a  hut  hard  by.  Margaret  continued  by  assuring  the 
hideous-looking  villain  that,  whatever  amount  of  hard 
fare,   in    food,    life,    and    lodging,    the    prince   now 


266       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

underwent,  if  he  were  only  kept  in  safety,  the  re- 
membrance of  it  when  he  came  to  his  own  again 
would  be  a  pleasant  memory;  and  whatever  oppor- 
tunity he  might  have  of  forwarding  the  interests  of 
his  Hexham  friend,  he  was  not  at  all  likely  to  forget 
to  prove  his  gratitude.  The  robber,  probably  unused 
to  listen  to  fervent  appeals  and  strange  confidences 
of  half  an  hour  long,  was  naturally  confused,  and 
looked  undecided,  —  on  which  the  indefatigable 
queen  attacked  him  again  with  reproaches  for  his 
life,  hints  of  Heaven's  wrath,  assurances  of  profit  here 
and  hereafter  if  he  would  but  behave  like  a  gentleman 
and  a  Lancastrian;  and,  finally,  she  said  to  him 
(as  we  are  told  by  Chastillain,  the  old  Burgundian 
chronicler,  who  heard  her  recount  the  story  to  the 
Duchess  de  Bourbon),  by  way  of  last  appeal  to  his 
humanity :  "  Je  te  fais  aujourd'hui  le  ventre  de  mon 
enfant,  je  te  constitue  seing  et  tettin  qui  I'a  nourry ; 
je  te  fais  p^re  et  m^re  de  mon  portage ;  "  and,  in 
conclusion,  she  more  than  hinted  that  an  outlaw  and 
a  reprobate,  such  as  he  was,  should  be  rejoiced  at 
the  honour  done  him,  and  should  seize  with  alacrity 
a  chance  which  was  not  Ukely  to  be  presented  to  him 
again ! 

George  Chastillain  wisely  notifies  here  that  he  is 
not  so  sure  that  these  were  the  words  used ;  but  he 
avers  that  the  substratum  of  the  narrative  is  correct. 
As  for  the  robber,  the  Burgundian  assures  us  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  visibly  descended  upon  him,  and 
that  this,  added  to  the  official  capacity,  —  to  the 
exercise  of  which  he  had  just  been  appointed  by 
the  queen,  —  so  wrought  upon  him  that  his  heart 
gave  way;  he  rolled   himself  in   the   dust   at  the 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  267 

prince's  feet,  and  promising  henceforth  to  prove  loyal 
and  live  cleanly,  offered  to  devote  his  life  to  the 
protection  of  the  youthful  heir  to  the  throne.  Mar- 
garet accordingly  entrusted  her  son  to  him,  while 
she  went  off  with  the  mute  and  unchivalrous  knight 
in  search  of  the  king,  whom  she  failed  to  discover. 
The  robber  himself  fulfilled  his  promises  like  a  noble 
man.  Indeed,  Provost  hints  that  he  was  a  ruined 
Lancastrian  gentleman  who  had  taken  to  the  road, 
and  who  lived  with  his  lady  in  a  hut  in  Hexham 
forest,  which  became  for  awhile  the  humble  palace 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  Duchess  de  Bourbon 
remarked  that  it  was  an  inconceivable  story;  and 
certainly  Jerningham's  drama  and  Colman's  tragi- 
comedy, founded  on  the  incident,  are  far  less  stir- 
ring than  the  narrative ;  and  such  Queen  Margarets 
as  Miss  Younge,  Mrs.  Stephen  Kemble,  or  Mrs. 
Pope,  with  such  a  gallant  robber  as  Bannister,  Hol- 
man,  or  Elliston,  and  especially  such  a  Prince  of 
Wales  as  Master  Tokely,  never  could  have  realised 
this  scene,  as  the  Burgundian  herald  has  painted  it, 
in  his  prolix  and  apparently  matter-of-fact  chronicle. 

By  aid  of  the  gentle  Lancastrian  robber,  and  the 
help  of  Lancastrians  of  less  equivocal  vocation,  Mar- 
garet and  the  Prince  of  Wales  are  said  to  have  been 
enabled  to  return  by  sea  to  Scotland.  By  whatever 
succour,  it  is  certain  that  they  safely  arrived  in  the 
northern  kingdom  ;  and  an  historian,  much  drier  than 
the  Burgundian,  but  addicted  like  him  to  weave  ro- 
mance with  history,  —  the  almoner  of  the  Prince  de 
Conti,  the  Abb^  Provost,  —  relates  that  after  Mar- 
garet and  the  prince  had  reached  Kirkcudbright,  they 
were  induced  to  go  on  board  a  vessel  by  an  English- 


268       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

man  named  Cork,  who  designed  to  deliver  them  to 
King  Edward.  The  queen's  faithful  Peter  De  Brez^, 
and  his  squire  Barville,  had  been  previously  carried 
on  board  by  violence,  —  a  fortunate  circumstance  for 
the  royal  couple,  as  by  their  aid  a  rescue  was  effected 
for  them  at  the  cost  of  killing  or  throwing  overboard 
the  five  persons  who  manned  the  boat.  The  boat 
thus  cleared  was  not  governable  by  such  a  crew 
as  was  left  in  her,  —  a  woman  and  boy,  and  a  couple 
of  Norman  soldiers.  After  driving  through  the 
perils  of  a  stormy  night,  the  boat  went  ashore 
opposite  Kirkcudbright,  but  with  no  further  injury 
to  the  precious  freight,  De  Brez^  carrying  the  queen 
through  the  waves  to  the  beach  on  his  shoulders, 
and  Barville  performing  the  same  office  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales. 

In  utter  destitution,  and  with  no  promise  of 
brighter  prospects,  the  miserable  mother  and  boy 
were  but  ill  considered  by  the  Scottish  authorities, 
who  exhibited  no  alacrity  in  affording  succour,  except 
succour  to  enable  the  poverty-stricken  fugitives  to 
leave  Scotland,  which  was  done  with  an  intimation 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  now  heir  to  nothing,  was 
no  longer  a  fitting  match  for  the  little  sister  of 
James  III. 

The  fortress  of  Bamborough,  off  the  coast  of 
Northumberland,  received  the  exiles  whom  Scotland 
rejected,  and  from  that  Lancastrian  nest  —  the  last 
that  had  not  been  blown  from  the  old  tree  —  the 
queen  set  sail  for  France,  her  son  still,  as  ever,  hold- 
ing by  the  folds  of  her  robe,  and  a  couple  of  hundred 
of  forlorn  Lancastrians  sharing  her  fortunes,  in  two 
vessels.     They  designed  for  France,  but  a  hurricane 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  269 

drove  them  to  the  port  of  L'Ecluse,  in  the  dukedom 
of  unfriendly,  York-loving  Burgundy.  Queen  and 
prince  went  ashore,  on  the  31st  of  July,  1462,  in 
costumes  whose  condition  matched  the  lowliness  of 
that  of  their  warriors.  Seven  ladies  of  honour  fol- 
lowed perforce  the  fashion  of  their  mistress  ;  and  the 
two  hundred  Lancastrian  refugees  looked  as  men 
might  do  in  their  plight,  though  that  was  not  at 
the  worst,  since  they  had  reached  a  land  where 
swords,  and  arms  to  wield  them,  were  in  constant 
request,  and  were  liberally  paid  for.  Insulted  by  the 
people,  suffering  from  fatigue  and  want,  the  greater 
portion  of  the  party  soon  moved  on  to  Bruges,  where 
Margaret  left  her  son;  while  in  peasant's  costume, 
and  in  a  tilted  cart,  she  courageously  went  forward 
to  ask  help  and  asylum  from  Philip  of  Burgundy,  — 
he  a  man  whom  she  hated,  she  a  woman  whom  he 
abhorred.  She  encountered  the  duke,  in  spite  of 
himself,  and  so  wrought  upon  that  obdurate  man 
by  her  beauty,  her  simplicity,  her  seductive  tone 
and  earnestness,  her  sad  story  eloquently  told,  her 
wonderful  tact,  and  her  glorious  promises,  that  when 
she  returned  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  at  Bruges,  she 
poured  out  before  the  boy  gold  crowns  and  jewels  — 
the  noble  largesse  of  the  duke,  and  told  him  the  while 
how  these  were  only  the  earnest  of  greater  benevo- 
lence to  come. 

Could  they  have  forgotten  all  that  had  passed,  the 
refugees  at  Bruges  might  have  enjoyed  the  life  that 
was  now  afforded  them.  They  lacked  nothing,  save 
by  the  roguery  of  stewards,  who  essayed  to  rob  them 
occasionally.  They  even  lived  in  splendour,  and  hon- 
ours were  paid  to  them  as  if  Margaret  were  on  the 


270       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

throne,  and  young  Edward  its  acknowledged  heir. 
Thus,  at  one  of  the  great  Burgundian  banquets, 
when  water  was  previously  offered  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales  to  dip  his  hands  therein,  before  he  sat 
at  table,  the  young  prince,  with  a  tact  derived  from 
his  mother*s  example,  declined  to  go  through  the 
formality  till  the  Count  de  Charolais,  son  of  the 
sovereign-duke,  had  taken  precedence  of  him  by 
washing  first.  The  count,  in  his  turn,  declining, 
Prince  Edward  courteously  invited  him  to  wash  at 
the  same  time  with  himself,  that  thus,  at  least,  they 
might  be  placed  upon  terms  of  equality.  The  count, 
not  to  be  excelled  in  politeness,  declared  that  he 
could  not  think  of  raising  himself  to  such  a  height. 
The  Prince  of  Wales,  having  gone  through  the  forms 
taught  him  by  a  similar  scene  between  his  mother 
and  the  count,  ceased  to  importune  the  latter;  but 
therewith  struck  by  a  natural  thought,  as  it  would 
seem,  asked  a  very  natural  question,  which  took  the 
form  of  inquiring  whether  such  courtesy  was  due  to 
poor  fugitives,  such  precedency  in  the  dominions  of 
a  powerful  prince  to  princes  who  were  without  do- 
minions —  without  even  shelter,  or  the  means  of  pro- 
curing it  ?  "  Nay,"  said  Count  Charles ;  "  in  spite 
of  that,  you  are  still  the  son  of  a  King  of  England. 
My  father  is  Sovereign-Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  my 
rank  is  below  your  own."  It  was  a  courteous  speech  ; 
but  unfortunately  the  count  uttered  it,  not  so  much 
to  do  honour  to  the  prince  as  to  annoy  his  own 
father  by  acknowledging  the  claims  of  young  Edward 
in  presence  of  the  nobles  of  Burgundy. 

The   sovereign-duke,    however,   fulfilled   his  duty 
gallantly,  and  sent  the  queen  and  prince,  under  suf- 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  271 

ficient  escort,  to  Lorraine,  where  Margaret's  father, 
Rene,  was  poor  in  everything  but  minstrels  and 
minstrelsy.  The  old  man,  nevertheless,  did  his  best 
for  child  and  grandchild.  He  entertained  them  him- 
self, in  his  musical  way,  and  got  his  folk  and  kinsfolk 
to  entertain  them.  Finally,  Duke  or  King  Ren6 
located  the  wandering  pair  in  the  castle  of  Kuerere, 
near  the  town  of  St.  Michel ;  and,  out  of  his  duchy 
of  Barr,  the  titular  King  of  Sicily  and  Jerusalem 
allowed  the  Queen  of  England  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales  ;£8o  yearly  toward  keeping  house.  The  sum 
seems  pitiable,  but  it  was  larger  than  it  looks,  and 
besides,  it  was  all  that  King  Ren^  had  to  give. 

And  here,  for  the  first  time,  young  Edward  had  a 
settled  home  and  rest,  and  leisure  to  learn  something ; 
for  hitherto  he  has  learnt  nothing,  save  that  life  was 
full  of  misery,  that  sorrow  was  enduring,  and  that  to 
be  a  prince  was  to  bear  unmerited  suffering,  and 
to  pay  undue  penalty.  This  poor  boy,  not  yet  ten 
years  of  age,  had  everything  to  learn ;  and,  as  events 
proved,  he  had  seven  years  of  not  comfortless  exile  in 
which  to  acquire  some  portion  of  that  wide  field  of 
knowledge,  ere  he  returned  home  to  blaze  in  battle, 
for  a  day,  and  to  be  murdered  at  the  end  of  it.  In 
the  exiled  court  was  that  faithful  and  accomplished 
Lancastrian,  Sir  John  Fortescue.  The  prince  was 
his  pupil,  and  Sir  John  set  about  rendering  him  fit  to 
govern,  by  writing  a  treatise  for  his  perusal,  on  the 
laws  of  the  realm  of  England. 

Of  the  personal  life  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  during 
his  long  exile,  little  is  known  that  can  be  relied  on. 
Provost  states,  generally,  that  when  the  queen  was 
not   engaged    in  furthering  her  husband's   cause  in 


2  72        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

England,  she  was  exclusively  employed  in  the  educa- 
tion of  her  son.  Young  Edward  is  described  as 
possessing  excellent  natural  qualities,  which  only 
needed  cultivation,  and  that  the  latter  was  assidu- 
ously furnished  by  the  anxious  care  of  the  queen. 
The  best  masters  that  her  means  could  procure  in 
France  were  provided  for  him,  but  these  were  under 
her  superintendence,  and  she  alone  tempered  the 
heart  and  formed  the  judgment  of  her  son,  whose 
prompt  progress  exceeded  her  warmest  hopes. 

Between  the  period  of  their  arrival  in  France  and 
their  reappearance  in  England,  a  rapid  succession  of 
events  had  occurred.  King  Henry  had  been  captured, 
sitting  quietly  at  dinner  in  Waddington  Hall,  and 
with  no  other  resistance  than  a  "  Forsooth ! "  and  a 
"  Verily !  "  Warwick  had  been  despatched  to  France 
to  negotiate  a  marriage  between  King  Edward  and 
the  Lady  Bona,  sister  of  the  French  queen.  When 
the  negotiator  had  succeeded,  he  learned  of  Edward's 
marriage  with  that  lively  widow,  Elizabeth  Wood- 
ville,  whose  Lancastrian  husband,  Lord  Gray  of 
Groby,  had  fallen  at  St.  Albans.  This  act  was  the 
commencement  of  the  dissension  which  resulted  in 
Warwick  entering  into  opposition  against  King  Ed- 
ward, and  drawing  the  king's  brother  Clarence  to 
unite  with  him,  —  an  ally  won,  by  Warwick  giving 
him  his  daughter  Isabel  in  marriage,  and  presenting 
to  him  a  prospect  of  the  crown  hereafter.  The  tem- 
porary capture  and  the  subsequent  escape  of  King 
Edward  followed ;  and  Warwick  appeared  in  France, 
an  adherent  of  Margaret  of  Lancaster,  and  the  pro- 
poser of  marriage  between  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
his  second   child,   Lady  Anne  Neville.     Thereupon 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  273 

ensued  his  invasion  of  England,  the  flight  of  King 
Edward,  —  during  whose  absence  a  future  Prince  of 
Wales  was  born,  —  the  temporary  restoration  of 
Henry  VI.,  the  return  of  Edward,  and  the  collision 
at  Barnet,  which  cost  Warwick  his  life,  reconsigned 
Henry  to  prison,  and  left  only  one  fight  more  to  be 
fought  out,  before  King  Edward  was  securely  placed 
upon  the  throne. 

It  was  to  share  in  the  anticipated  triumph  which 
Warwick  was  to  achieve  for  Lancaster,  that  Margaret 
and  Prince  Edward  quitted  France  and  repaired  to 
meet  utter  defeat  in  England.  Previously  to  coming 
to  this  period,  let  me  briefly  notice  what  may  be  col- 
lected touching  their  sojourn  in  the  former  kingdom, 
where  they  had  the  most  selfish  of  patrons  in  Louis 
XL,  who  only  aided  them  because  he  thereby  brought 
profit  to  himself.  At  his  court  at  Amboise  they 
were  occasional  visitors,  but  never,  probably,  except 
when  serious  business  was  on  hand.  With  her  son, 
she  made  short  progresses  to  various  chdteaux,  whose 
lords  were  proud  to  entertain  the  royal  exiles ;  and 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was,  on  one  occasion,  so  far 
deemed  to  possess  the  warrant  of  prosperity,  that,  at 
the  invitation  of  Louis,  he  stood  as  one  of  the 
sponsors  for  the  infant  dauphin,  Charles.  In  the 
French  capital,  too,  the  exiles  occasionally  resided, 
and  there  tradition  asserts  that  the  youthful  Prince  of 
Wales  first  saw  "  Lady  Anne,"  whose  childish  beauty 
so  impressed  his  boyish  heart,  that  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  became  as  enamoured  as  a  page,  and  as 
faithful  as  any  belted  knight  in  the  romaunt  of  love. 
Tradition,  too,  extends  much  farther  than  this.  Dur- 
ing the  intrigues  which  Louis  XL  carried  on,  pro- 


274       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

fessedly  for  the  interest  of  others,  but  invariably  for 
his  own,  he  despatched  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne 
on  a  mission  to  the  court  of  King  Edward.  In  the 
ecclesiastical  suite  of  the  archiepiscopal  ambassador 
were  two  ecclesiastics,  —  one  extremely  young,  the 
other  several  years  his  elder,  —  whose  real  names 
and  quality  were  known  to  none  of  the  party  save 
the  archbishop  himself.  The  younger  individual,  a 
theological  student,  was  Edward,  Prince  of  Wales  ; 
the  grave,  yet  handsome  abb^,  who  accompanied  him, 
was  Margaret  of  Anjou.  The  Dukes  of  Exeter  and 
Somerset,  and  the  Earl  of  Devon,  were  in  the  secret, 
and  the  former,  who  must  have  been  in  considerable 
peril  himself,  contrived  to  lodge  the  illustrious  pair  of 
clerical  gentlemen  in  a  house  of  his  own,  or  one 
belonging  to  a  follower  of  his  house.  On,  or  rather 
from,  this  stage  a  pretty  drama  was  played  out. 
Margaret,  by  dint  of  various  disguises,  much  money, 
and  tender-hearted  gaolers,  actually  —  so  tradition 
asserts,  and  the  Ahh6  Prevost  accepts  it  for  history 
—  actually  penetrated  to  the  interior  of  her  husband's 
prison  in  the  Tower,  where  she  remained,  marvel- 
lously undisturbed,  for  a  whole  week,  and  then  re- 
turned to  her  private  residence,  only  to  find  the  son, 
from  whom  she  had  never  before  been  separated, 
gone,  no  one  knew  whither,  nor  how  whence. 

Margaret's  despair  was  intense ;  but  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  who  had  kept  careless  supervision  over  his 
charge,  attempted  to  soothe  the  maternal  inquietude 
by  pointing  out  that  the  prince's  confidential  servant 
had  accompanied  his  lord,  that  they  had  taken  few 
things  with  them,  and  that  everything  portended  a 
certain  and  speedy  return.     As  the  duke  calculated. 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  275 

SO  did  it  happen.  After  a  few  days  the  truant  prince 
and  the  chosen  attendant  regained  their  temporary 
home,  not  a  little  surprised,  it  is  said,  to  find  the 
queen  already  returned  from  her  secret  sojourn  in 
the  Tower;  and  amid  her  joy,  her  anger,  and  her 
fear,  looking  for  an  explanation  of  this  strange  esca- 
pade. It  was  all  for  love !  Such  was  the  excuse 
of  the  amorous  prince.  He  had  crossed  to  Calais, 
still  in  disguise,  where  Warwick  was  **  Captain,"  and 
Lady  Anne  was  resident,  and  that  lady  the  magnet 
which  drew  him  to  that  port.  The  lovers  had  met  — 
very  much,  it  would  seem,  without  regard  to  propriety 
—  in  secret,  had  renewed  the  old  fond  terms  on  which 
they  had  first  entered  at  Paris,  and  had  altogether 
passed  a  busy  and  a  delicious  time  of  it.  Delicious, 
for  personal  reasons ;  and  busy,  inasmuch  as  he  had 
gained  from  the  too  ready  young  lady  such  secrets 
concerning  her  father's  intentions  as  she  was  likely 
to  get  from  one  of  the  most  impenetrable  men  that 
ever  breathed  ! 

Well,  the  tale  told,  the  wandering  troubadour  was 
pardoned,  for  Margaret  was  rather  proud  of  the 
unusual  boldness  of  a  boy,  who  had  never  shown 
forwardness  till  thus  stimulated  by  love.  She  longed 
more  than  ever  to  carry  him  to  a  throne  and  seat  his 
chosen  wife  by  his  side ;  and  when,  soon  after  this, 
she  had  reason  to  believe  that  her  presence  was  sus- 
pected by  the  government,  she  had  her  son  secretly 
conveyed  over  the  Channel  to  Boulogne,  while  she 
loitered  about  Kent,  but  ultimately  crossed  the  Chan- 
nel from  Sussex  to  Dieppe.  As  good  fortune  or 
tradition  would  have  it,  there  crossed  in  the  same 
vessel  a  young  lady  whom  she  discovered  to  be  the 


276       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

unmarried  daughter  of  Warwick,  and  these  two  per- 
sons, revealing  themselves  to  each  other,  entered  into 
such  confidential  details,  and  became  so  affectionate 
and  unreserved  toward  each  other,  that  Margaret 
was  ready  to  accept  Anne  for  her  daughter-in-law 
long  before  they  had  landed ! 

On  the  slight  foundation  that  Lady  Anne  and 
Prince  Edward  had  met  before  Warwick  proposed 
this  match  to  Margaret  as  the  price  of  his  aid  in 
lifting  Lancaster  once  more  to  power,  has  this  ro- 
mantic story  been  constructed.  The  first  idea  of 
such  a  match  was  hateful  to  Margaret,  for  Warwick 
had  denied  the  legitimacy  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
himself.  To  the  latter,  however,  it  seems  to  have 
been  highly  acceptable,  and  the  marriage  was  cele- 
brated at  Amboise  with  extraordinary  magnificence, 
—  but  which  seemed  to  bespeak  the  confidence  of 
all  parties  present,  that  Lady  Anne  was  the  future 
Queen  of  England ;  as  indeed  she  proved  to  be, 
though  not  as  the  wife  of  Edward  of  Westminster. 

While  the  wedded  pair  prolonged  their  wedding 
festival,  Warwick  invaded  England,  to  prepare  their 
triumphant  path  to  the  steps  of  the  throne ;  and  while 
he  was  advancing  rapidly  to  the  ruin  which  over- 
whelmed him  at  Bamet,  the  fugitive  Lancastrians 
slowly  moved  forward  to  the  final  ruin  which  com- 
pleted the  shipwreck  of  Lancaster  at  Tewkesbury. 
Their  progress  is  thus  alluded  to  by  a  Yorkist 
chronicler :  — 

"  Here  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  at  this  season 
of  the  king's  (Edward  IV.)  coming  toward  and  being 
at  Warwick,  and  of  the  coming  to  him  of  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  Clarence,  —  Edward  calling  himself  Duke 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  277 

of  Somerset ;  John  of  Somerset,  his  brother,  calling 
himself  Marquis  of  Dorset ;  Thomas  Courtney,  calling 
himself  Earl  of  Devonshire,  being  at  London,  had 
knowledge  out  of  France  that  Queen  Margaret  and 
her  son,  called  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Countess  of 
Warwick,  the  Prior  of  St.  John's,  the  Lord  Wenlock, 
with  other  many  their  adherents  and  part-takers,  with 
all  that  ever  they  might  make,  were  ready  at  the  sea- 
side coming,  purposing  to  arrive  in  the  west  country ; 
whereupon  they  departed  out  of  London  and  went 
to  the  west  parts,  and  there  bestirred  them  right 
greatly  to  make  an  assembly  of  as  much  people  for 
to  receive  them  at  their  coming,  then  to  accompany, 
fortify,  and  assist  against  the  king  (Edward  IV.)  and 
all  his  part-takers  in  the  quarrel  of  Henry,  called 
king,  and  occupying  the  regalia  for  that  time.  And 
true  it  was  that  she,  her  son,  the  Countess  of  War- 
wick, the  lords  and  other  of  their  fellowship,  entered 
their  ships  for  that  intent,  the  24th  of  March,  and 
so  continued  their  abode  in  their  ships,  ere  they 
might  land  in  England,  to  the  14th  day  of  April,  for 
default  of  good  wind  and  for  great  tempests  upon  the 
sea  that  time,  as  who  saith,  continuing  by  the  space 
of  twenty  days." ' 

Sea-tossed,  the  expedition  at  length  entered  Wey- 
mouth harbour,  on  Easter-eve.  The  queen,  the 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales,  and  a  gallant  follow- 
ing of  hopeful  friends,  proceeded  to  Cerne  Abbey, 
where  on  the  succeeding  day  the  intelligence  of  the 
overthrow  at  Bamet  was  conveyed  to  them.  In 
momentary  despair,  the  affrighted  party  betook  them- 

» "  Historic  of  the  Arrivall  of  Edward  IV."  Edited  by  John  Bruce, 
Esq.,  F.  S.  A. 


278        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

selves  to  the  abbey  at  Beaulieu,  seeking  temporary 
safety  by  registering  their  names  there  as  those  of 
persons  privileged  to  take  sanctuary.  There  they 
must  have  remained  despairing,  but  for  the  visit  of 
Lancastrian  chiefs  who  came  to  promise  new  levies, 
and  who  recognised  assurance  of  success  in  the 
presence  of  young  Edward.  Habington  in  his  his- 
tory, figures  forth  the  image  of  their  argument  and 
hopes : 

"But  above  all,  what  a  confluence  of  the  boldest 
youth  there  would  be  to  the  prince,  would  he  but 
take  the  field  and  appear  in  his  own  quarrel.  Noth- 
ing having  advanced  the  title  of  York  but  March's 
presence  in  all  battles,  or  foiled  the  reputation  of 
Lancaster,  but  King  Henry's  inactive  piety  and  fight- 
ing still  by  deputies.  The  soldiers  thinking  it  vain 
for  them  to  hazard  their  lives,  when  the  prince  whom 
it  concerns  timorously  refuseth  to  venture  his  own." 

The  mother's  heart  was  severely  tried  by  the  sug- 
gestion that  in  this  last  struggle  for  Lancaster  young 
Prince  Edward  should  carry  his  own  banner  into  the 
field,  draw  his  own  sword,  and  peril  his  own  life  for 
the  sake  of  securing  victory.  Margaret  repeatedly 
urged  his  extreme  youth,  —  but  the  Black  Prince  was 
younger  when  he  won  Cressy.  She  spoke  of  his 
inexperience,  —  but  this  boy  of  girlish  beauty  had  at 
least  seen  more  fields  than  Henry  of  Monmouth  when 
the  latter  was  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  the  war 
in  Wales.  Earnestly,  poor  Margaret  prayed  that  her 
only  child  might  be  sent  back  to  France,  there  to 
await  the  issue  of  this  imminent  enterprise.  Should 
that  issue  be  unprosperous,  he  at  least  would  be  in 
safety,  and  might  have  leisure  to  perfect  himself  in  a 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  279 

training,  the  result  of  which  might  restore  the  for- 
tunes of  Lancaster.  But  her  entreaties  were  quietly 
disrespected,  her  sentiments  overruled,  and  her  son 
put  prominently  forward  as  the  leader  in  this  last 
venture.  "His  very  name,"  says  Habington,  "like  a 
diamond,  attracted  multitudes  to  the  war." 

With  this  force  the  last  effort  was  made.  The 
Lancastrians  now  had  a  divided  army,  —  one  at  Bris- 
tol, the  other  under  Jasper  Tudor,  in  Wales.  It  was 
the  object  of  Edward  IV.  to  prevent  the  union  of 
these  divisions,  by  beating  them  in  detail ;  and  it 
was  in  order  to  accomplish  this  object  that  he  at 
length  encountered  the  Lancastrian  army  at  Tewkes- 
bury. The  latter  was  exhausted  by  want  and  long 
marching,  and  Somerset,  the  leader  of  the  van,  saw 
plainly  that  there  they  must  perforce  take  such  for- 
tune as  God  should  send.  Whether,  as  some  say, 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was  with  Somerset  in  the  van, 
or  led  the  middle  division,  with  tardy  Lord  Wenlock, 
—  the  third  was  under  the  Earl  of  Devonshire,  —  is 
variously  stated.  Before  the  fight  commenced,  on 
the  memorable  4th  of  May,  1471,  the  queen  rode 
through  the  ranks  accompanied  by  the  Prince  of 
Wales ;  real  warrior,  for  the  first  and  last  time,  and 
of  gallant  spirit  now  that  he  had  to  be  self-reliant. 
And  yet  in  the  details  of  the  battle  which  on  the  part 
of  the  Yorkists  was  a  rush,  on  that  of  the  Lancas- 
trians a  rout,  he  is  only  dimly  seen.  We  hear  of  his 
unavailing  gallantry  without  hearing  of  an  especial 
exhibition  ;  and  in  the  general  flight  in  which  he 
joined,  yet  fighting  as  he  flew,  he  was  captured  by 
Sir  Richard  Croft ;  who  did  not  deliver  him  to  King 
Edward  till  the  latter  had  proclaimed  a  reward  of 


28o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

;£icx)  annuity  for  the  captor,  and  the  grace  of  life 
for  the  captive.  Thereupon  Sir  Richard  brought 
the  young  prince  to  the  king's  tent,  wherein  were 
Edward,  his  brothers,  Clarence  (returned  to  his  alle- 
giance) and  Gloucester,  with  various  Yorkist  nobles. 
What  ensued  is  variously  related  by  nearly  contem- 
porary chroniclers,  or  by  historians  who  founded  their 
narrative  on  the  faith  of  chroniclers.  Among  the 
latter  is  Habington,  who  says  : 

"  For  King  Edward,  presently  upon  the  delivery  of 
the  prince,  caused  him  to  be  brought  into  his  pres- 
ence, and  entertained  him  with  some  demonstration 
of  courtesy ;  moved,  perhaps,  thereunto  by  the  inno- 
cency  of  his  youth,  compassion  for  his  misfortune,  or 
the  comeliness  of  his  person,  the  composition  of  his 
body  being  guilty  of  no  fault,  but  a  too  feminine 
beauty.  At  first  it  was  supposed  that  the  king  might 
have  some  charitable  intention,  and  resolved  happily 
to  have  settled  him  in  the  duchy  of  Lancaster,  his 
father's  inheritance,  a  patrimony  too  narrow  for  a 
king,  and  something  too  large  for  a  subject ;  and  for 
that  end  is  said  to  have  entered  discourse  with  him  to 
make  trial  whether  his  spirit  would  stoop  to  acknowl- 
edge a  superior.  He  therefore  questioned  him  what 
mad  persuasion  had  made  him  enter  into  so  rash  an 
enterprise  as  to  take  up  arms  against  him,  where  the 
very  attempt  was  rebellion,  being  against  his  sover- 
eign, and  folly,  being  in  opposition  to  a  prince  so  far 
in  power  above  him.  He  expected  a  humble  answer, 
as  if  he  were  to  beg  his  life,  as  soft  and  gentle  accord- 
ing to  the  complexion  either  of  his  fortune  or  his 
face.  But  he,  with  a  resolution  as  bold  as  his  grand- 
father, Henry  V.,  would  have  replied  with,  answered 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  281 

*  that  to  recover  his  father  miserably  oppressed,  and 
the  crown  violently  usurped,  he  had  taken  arms. 
Neither  could  he  be  reputed  to  make  any  unjust 
claim,  who  desired  no  more  than  what  had  been  pos- 
sessed by  Henry  the  Sixth,  the  Fifth,  and  Fourth  — 
his  father,  grandfather,  and  great-grandfather,  Kings 
of  England  ;  and  acknowledged  by  the  approbation, 
not  of  the  kingdom  only,  but  the  world,  and  even 
by  the  progenitors  of  King  Edward.' "  Habington 
adds,  that  at  this  speech,  the  king,  with  a  look  of 
indignation,  turned  from  him,  thrusting  him  disdain- 
fully aside  with  his  gauntlet.  "Which  so  mighty 
rage  observed,  and  his  so  distempered  parting  out  of 
the  room,  the  Dukes  of  Clarence  and  Gloucester,  the 
Marquis  of  Dorset  and  Lord  Hastings,  seized  sud- 
denly upon  the  prince,  and  with  their  poignards  most 
barbarously  murdered  him." 

Fabyan's  account  is,  that  the  king  actually  struck 
Edward ;  and  that,  thereupon,  the  "  king's  servants," 
the  officers  in  attendance  there,  slew  him.  The 
chronicler  in  Leland's  collection  affirms  that  young 
Edward  was  killed  while  "crying  on  the  Duke  of 
Clarence,  his  brother-in-law,  for  help ; "  a  phrase 
which  would  imply  that  the  duke  did  not  actively 
interfere.  De  Comines  simply  records  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  killed  on  the  field. 

Trussel  writes  that  King  Edward  at  first  received 
the  young  prince  "with  a  kind  of  countenance  ex- 
pressing more  signs  of  rejoicing  to  see  a  friend,  than 
triumph  of  taking  an  enemy,  and  began  to  move 
familiar  questions  unto  him  ;  but  not  receiving  such 
submissive,  satisfactory  answers  as  he  required,  and 
it  may  be  some  of  riper  years,  on  the  like  occasion. 


282        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

would  have  done,  he  disdainfully  thrust  him  from 
him,  when  presently  the  Duke  of  York  (Gloucester  ?) 
and  Clarence,  Thomas,  Marquis  of  Dorset,  and  the 
Lord  Hastings  (the  king's  back  being  then  turned), 
with  their  poignards  barbarously  stabbed  into  the 
breast,  and  inhumanly  murdered,  against  the  law  of 
God,  nature,  and  nations,  which  occasioned  the 
revenge  of  his  blood  afterward  in  general  upon 
them  all,  and  in  particular  upon  every  one  of  them." 
This  account  agrees  with  that  of  Polydore  Virgil,  in 
this  much ;  the  last  named  chronicler  asserting  that 
King  Edward  made  no  reply  to  the  spirited  speech 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  but  that  he  "  set  aside  the 
youth  with  his  hand,"  and  that  the  prince  was  then 
set  upon  by  Clarence,  Gloucester,  and  Hastings. 
The  cautious  "Continuator  of  the  History  of  Croy- 
land,"  on  the  other  hand,  hints,  rather  than  asserts, 
mingles  the  slain,  the  murdered,  and  the  executed ; 
and  notifies  that  Prince  Edward,  the  only  son  of  King 
Henry,  and  many  lords  of  lesser  note,  were  "slain 
either  on  the  field,  or  after  the  battle,  by  the  aveng- 
ing hands  of  certain  persons." 

Finally,  George  Bucke,  the  semi-apologist  of  Rich- 
ard HI.,  quotes  an  ancient  Flemish  chronicler,  not 
only  to  prove  that  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  did  not 
strike  the  young  prince,  but  that  his  hand  was  re- 
strained out  of  love  for  the  young  prince's  wife. 
"Anne  was  with  her  husband,  Edward  of  Lancas- 
ter, when  that  unfortunate  prince  was  hurried  before 
Edward  IV.  after  the  battle  of  Tewkesbury,  and  it 
was  observed  that  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  was 
the  only  person  present  who  did  not  draw  his  sword 
on  the  royal  captive  —  out  of  respect  to  the  presence 


EDWARD  OF  WESTMINSTER  283 

of  Anne,  as  she  was  the  near  relative  of  his  mother, 
and  a  person  whose  affections  he  had  always  desired 
to  possess."  I  could  and  do  wish  that  this  were  true  ; 
and  though  it  may  be  otherwise,  there  is  another 
reason  why  Gloucester  may  not  have  stabbed  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  Like  him,  Gloucester  was  at  this 
time  but  a  boy,  in  his  nineteenth  year,  so  little  above 
the  age  of  the  prince,  that  it  would  have  been  at  least 
natural,  in  any  other  boy  so  placed,  to  have  felt  sym- 
pathy with,  rather  than  antipathy  against,  so  gallant 
a  youth  oppressed  by  so  heavy  a  calamity.  More- 
over, the  French  tradition,  as  handed  down  by  Pro- 
vost, asserts  that  the  prince  was  slain  in  fight.  His 
pursuers  saw  him  strike  fiercely  at  a  foeman,  his 
sword  entering  the  body  of  the  latter;  and  before 
he  could  recover  his  arm,  his  eager  enemies  set  upon 
and  slaughtered  him. 

On  the  day  succeeding  this  catastrophe,  the  young 
prince  was  buried,  with  maimed  rites,  in  Tewkesbury 
Abbey,  directly  under  the  tower  of  the  church,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  choir.  A  gray  marble  slab,  which 
once  marked  the  spot,  has  been  removed,  and  now 
serves  to  support  the  font,  but  a  brass  tablet  has 
been  erected  near  the  place  once  occupied  by  the 
slab,  with  a  Latin  inscription,  to  the  effect  that  "  in 
order  that  the  memory  of  Edward,  Prince  of  Wales, 
should  not  perish,  the  pious  care  of  the  people  of 
Tewkesbury  provided  this  tablet  to  indicate  the  spot 
where  he  is  interred.'* 

The  mother  of  the  prince  graced  the  conqueror's 
triumph,  but  the  king  ultimately  released  her,  and 
she  died  in  France,  the  pensionary  of  Louis  XL,  in 
August,  1 48 1.     The  wife  of  the  prince  fell  into  the 


284       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

power  of  her  brother-in-law,  the  Duke  of  Clarence ; 
but  in  1473  she  married  the  young  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, one  of  the  alleged  murderers  of  her  first  youthful 
husband. 


CHAPTER   X. 

EDWARD    OF   THE   SANCTUARY    (YORK) 
Bom  1470.     Died  (Edward  V.)  1483 

When  the  battle  of  Tewkesbury  was  fought,  on 
the  4th  of  May,  147 1,  the  successor  in  title  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales  there  slain  was  a  six  months  old 
baby,  whose  birth  had  occurred  at  a  time  when 
rebellion  was  driving  his  father,  Edward  IV.,  from 
the  throne,  for  a  season,  and  all  the  Yorkists  in  Lon- 
don and  the  provinces  were  beginning  to  despair  of 
the  permanent  establishment  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
house  of  York.  At  that  time,  the  unpopular  mar- 
riage of  Edward  with  the  Lancastrian  Elizabeth 
Woodville  had  produced  three  daughters,  but  as  yet 
no  male  heir. 

In  the  month  of  September,  or,  as  some  say,  in 
November,  1470,  a  lady  with  three  young  girls,  a 
scanty  retinue,  and  in  hot  haste,  sought  a  refuge 
in  the  Sanctuary  at  Westminster.  That  lady  was 
the  Queen  of  England.  Her  husband,  Edward  the 
Fourth,  had  at  that  time  occupied  the  throne  during 
nine  years,  but  when  his  terrified  consort  was  knock- 
ing at  the  gates  of  the  Sanctuary  at  Westminster 
and  her  friends  and  relatives  hastily  sheltering  them- 
selves at  shrines  in  other  churches,  he,  the  king,  was 

285 


286       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

in  eager  flight  also,  for  priests  were  preaching  his 
people  into  rebellion  at  Paul's  Cross,  and  the  terrible 
Warwick  was  pursuing  him  over  the  eastern  counties, 
driving  him  into  that  stormy  sea  beyond  which  he 
found  a  resting-place  and  breathing-time,  in  Holland 
and  Burgundy. 

Under  such  unhappy  circumstances  was  born  the 
most  luckless  of  our  Princes  of  Wales ;  **  poorly,  in 
sanctuary,"  as  Habington  expresses  it,  "and,  if  for- 
tune beyond  expectation  altered  not,  heir  apparent 
only  to  his  father's  misery."  This  event  occurred 
on  the  14th  of  November,  of  the  year  above  named. 
Gloomy  as  were  the  attendant  auspices,  the  queen 
was  not  entirely  destitute.  Her  physician  Serigo 
was  near  her ;  a  compassionate  woman,  "  old  mother 
Cobb,"  lent  her  welcome  aid,  and  Abbot  Milling  sup- 
plied all  that  the  imagination  of  an  abbot  could  sug- 
gest as  likely  to  be  required  by  mother  and  child. 
The  good  abbot  called  in  the  prior  at  the  christening 
which  followed,  and  the  reverend  men  stood  god- 
fathers to  the  heir  of  England ;  Lady  Scrope  under- 
took the  duties  of  godmother ;  and  thus,  humble  as 
these  sponsors  may  have  been  for  a  prince,  was  the 
young  Edward  admitted  into  Christ's  flock,  though 
we  can  hardly  agree  with  the  annotator  on  Sir 
Thomas  More's  history,  that  "the  whole  ceremony 
of  the  christening  (was)  as  mean  as  a  poor  man's 
child." 

In  this  sanctuary  the  young  prince  remained  with 
the  queen  and  his  elder  sister  Elizabeth,  till  the 
triumphant  return  of  the  king  to  England,  in  April, 
1 47 1.  On  his  arrival,  says  the  "Fleetwood  His- 
toric," edited  by  Mr.  Bruce,  Edward  "  sent  comfort- 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  287 

able  messages  to  the  queen  at  Westminster,  and  to 
his  true  lords,  servants,  and  lovers,  being  at  London, 
whereupon*  by  the  most  covert  means  that  they  could, 
they  avised  and  practised  how  he  might  be  received 
and  welcomed  at  his  said  city  of  London."  From 
entering  the  city,  neither  Warwick  nor  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  could  prevent  the  invader.  Edward, 
having  obtained  possession  of  the  Tower  and  of  King 
Henry,  repaired  to  both  cathedrals,  and  in  St.  Paul's 
and  at  Westminster  publicly  thanked  God,  St.  Peter, 
and  St.  Edward,  for  his  success.  This  done,  he 
"then  went  to  the  queen  and  comforted  her,  that 
had  a  long  time  abiden  and  sojourned  at  Westmin- 
ster, assuring  her  person  only  by  the  great  franchise 
of  that  holy  place;  in  right  great  trouble,  sorrow, 
and  heaviness,  which  she  sustained  with  all  manner 
of  patience  that  belonged  to  any  creature,  and  as  con- 
stantly as  hath  been  seen  at  any  time  any  of  so  high 
estate  to  endure.  In  the  which  season,  neverthe- 
less, she  had  brought  into  this  world,  to  the  king's 
greatest  joy,  a  fair  son,  a  prince,  wherewith  she 
presented  him  at  his  coming,  to  his  heart's  singu- 
lar comfort  and  gladness,  and  to  all  them  that  him 
truly  loved  and  would  serve.  From  thence,  that 
night,"  continues  the  chronicle  so  ably  edited 
by  Mr.  Bruce,  "the  king  returned  to  London  and 
the  queen  with  him,  and  lodged  at  the  lodging 
of  my  lady,  his  mother;  where  they  heard  divine 
service  that  night  and  upon  the  morrow,  Good 
Friday." 

The  residence  of  the  queen's  mother  was  at  Bay- 
nard's  Castle,  near  the  river,  from  whence  the  king, 
with   the   royal   family,  removed  to  the  Tower,  in 


288       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

which  they  were  all  soon  after  besieged,  but  unsuc- 
cessfully, by  the  Lancastrian  Falconbridge,  from  the 
Thames.  Thus  the  young  prince's  first  peril  was 
encountered  there  where  he  met  his  death. 

King  Edward  was  firmly  seated  on  the  throne 
when,  two  years  later,  he  conferred  a  costly  gift  on 
his  little  son,  then  at  Windsor.  He  had  recently 
confiscated  all  the  property  of  Warwick's  brother, 
the  Archbishop  of  York;  and,  says  Warkworth's 
Chronicle,  "  the  king  broke  the  archbishop's  mitre,  in 
the  which  were  full  many  rich  stones,  and  precious, 
and  made  thereof  a  crown  for  himself.  And  all  his 
other  jewels,  plate,  and  stuff,  the  king  gave  it  to  his 
eldest  son  and  heir.  Prince  Edward." 

Touching  the  heirship  of  the  prince,  his  father 
seems  to  have  held  diverse  opinions  as  to  its  being 
an  heirship  to  the  crown.  When  the  queen  was 
about  to  give  birth  to  her  first  child,  the  court  phy- 
sicians skilled  in  astrology  predicted  that  the  child 
would  be  a  son.  It  proved  to  be  a  daughter,  and 
the  maids  of  honour  laughed  at  the  "  medicos  "  and 
called  them  "fools,"  while  Edward  solaced  himself 
with  another  prophecy,  which  said  that,  whether  his 
eldest  child  were  girl  or  boy,  it  should  wear  the 
crown  of  England. 

But  now,  when  little  Edward  of  the  Sanctuary 
was  growing  in  strength  and  beauty,  the  king, 
misdoubting  astrologers,  betook  himself  to  the 
study  of  the  stars  and  books  of  magic,  and  be- 
came so  wise  in  the  profitless  lore  thereby  gained 
that  he  was  able  to  draw  his  son's  horoscope  with 
his  own  hand.  His  eldest  daughter,  Elizabeth,  on 
one  occasion,  came  upon  him  when  he  was  sitting 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  289 

mute,  but  not  tearless,  amid  a  group  of  lords,  who 
dared  not  break  the  silence.  The  princess,  bolder 
than  they,  knelt  at  his  knee  and  asked  him  for  a 
blessing.  Edward  looked  upon  her,  took  her  to 
a  recess  in  the  chamber  formed  by  a  bay  window, 
and  seating  her  there,  showed  her  the  horoscope  he 
had  cast,  whereby  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion, 
odious  to  himself,  that  no  son  of  his  would  really 
ever  wear  the  crown.  The  science  further  taught 
him  that,  though  Edward  of  the  Sanctuary  would 
never  actually  be  king,  she,  Elizabeth  of  York, 
would,  assuredly,  one  day  be  queen. 

The  above  is  a  well-known  legend,  of  which 
greater  use  has  been  made  by  the  poets  than  by  the 
painters.  Concerning  its  probability,  I  have  nothing 
to  add ;  but  will  remark,  that  the  king,  despite  horo- 
scopes and  his  lessons  from  the  stars,  took  such 
a  course  with  the  young  prince  as  may  convince 
us  that  he  had  little  doubt  of  his  one  day  wear- 
ing the  "garland  of  the  realm,"  and  was  resolved 
to  render  him  more  worthy  of  it  than  he  was  him- 
self. 

The  prince  was  only  three  years  of  age  when  the 
king  drew  up  letters  of  instruction  to  the  Earl 
Rivers,  and  Russell,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  for  the 
education  of  his  son.  These  instructions  are  in  them- 
selves remarkable,  and  singular,  moreover,  as  coming 
from  a  father  of  evil  life,  —  one  who  afforded  the 
vicious  examples  which  he  forbade  others  to  exhibit 
in  presence  of  his  children.  Edward  expressed  him- 
self anxious  for  "the  politic,  sad  (serious),  and  good 
rule  "  of  his  son's  household.  This  rule  was  to  be 
established  at   Michaelmas,   1473,  and  the  king  re- 


290       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

quired  the  earl  and  bishop  to  see  that  his  instruc- 
tions were  stringently  kept  and  observed. 

The  first  ten  "  ordinances "  in  these  letters  of 
instruction  are  addressed  exclusively  to  Earl  Rivers, 
for  the  guiding  of  the  little  prince's  person.  Three, 
in  succession,  command  that  young  Edward  be 
made  to  arise  every  morning  at  a  convenient  hour, 
according  to  his  age ;  and  that,  till  he  be  ready,  no 
man  have  access  to  him,  but  the  earl,  his  chaplains 
and  chamberlains,  —  or  any  other  by  permission  of 
the  earl.  It  is  then  directed  that  the  chaplains  say 
matins  in  the  prince's  presence,  "and  when  he  is 
ready,  and  the  matins  said,  forthwith  to  go  to  his 
chapel  or  closet,  to  have  his  mass  there,  and  in  no 
wise  in  his  chamber,  without  a  cause  reasonable  ;  and 
no  man  to  interrupt  him  during  his  mass  time."  The 
amount  of  religious  service  appointed  for  this  little 
boy  of  three  years  of  age  was  something  appal- 
ling. 

Not  only,  in  addition  to  the  above,  was  he  on 
every  holy  day  to  "  have  all  the  divine  service  in  his 
chapel,"  where  he  was  to  "offer  afore  the  altar," 
but  "upon  principal  feasts  and  usual  days  of  predi- 
cation," the  sire,  almost  as  cruel  as  young  Edward's 
uncle,  enjoined  that  sermons  should  be  preached  in 
presence  of  this  infant,  and  that  all  his  household 
should  attend  the  same,  unless  duty  called  them  else- 
where. There  was  nothing  permitted  in  the  way 
of  sport  for  this  luckless  little  Prince  of  Wales,  until 
he  had  risen  from  dinner.  In  the  interim,  his  day 
was  thus  shaped  for  him :  "  We  will  that  our  said 
son  have  his  breakfast  immediately  after  his  mass; 
and  between  that  and  his  meals  to  be  occupied  in 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  291 

such  virtuous  learning  as  his  age  shall  suffer  to 
receive.  And  that  he  be  at  his  dinner  at  a  con- 
venient hour,  and  thereat  to  be  honourably  served, 
and  his  dishes  to  be  borne  by  worshipful  folks  and 
squires,  having  on  our  livery ;  and  that  all  other 
officers  and  servants  give  their  due  attendance, 
according  to  their  offices." 

In  the  next  rule  there  is  an  ample  provision  made 
for  his  mind  and  morals,  as  there  is  above  with 
respect  to  his  meat.  This  rule  enjoins :  *'  that  no 
man  sit  at  his  board  but  such  as  shall  be  thought 
fit  by  the  discretion  of  the  Earl  Rivers ;  and  that 
there  be  read  before  him  such  noble  stories  as 
behoveth  to  a  prince  to  understand  and  know;  and 
that  the  communication  at  all  times  in  his  presence 
be  of  virtue,  honour,  cunning  (that  is,  knowledge), 
wisdom,  and  of  deeds  of  worship,  and  of  nothing  that 
should  move  or  stir  him  to  vice." 

The  king,  who  was  himself  all  vice,  then  directs 
that  this  royal  infant  "after  his  meat,  in  eschewing 
of  idleness,  be  occupied  about  his  learning ;  and  after, 
in  his  presence  be  showed  all  such  convenient  dis- 
ports and  exercises  as  behoveth  his  estate  to  have 
experience."  Anon,  "our  son  must  break  off  sport 
and  go  to  even-song ;  and  that  soon  after  done,  to 
be  at  his  supper  —  served  in  such  form  as  I  have 
noticed  above."  This  meal  over,  the  boy  was  to  have 
all  such  honest  disports  as  may  be  conveniently  de- 
vised for  his  recreation  ;  and  then,  to  bed.  "  We  will," 
says  Edward,  "that  our  said  son  be  in  his  chamber, 
and  for  all  night  livery  to  be  set,  the  travers" 
(curtain)  "drawn  anon  upon  eight  of  the  clock,  and 
all  persons  from  thence  then  to  be  avoided,  except 


292       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

such  as  shall  be  deputed  and  appointed  to  give  their 
attendance  upon  him  all  night ;  and  that  they  enforce 
themselves  to  make  him  merry  and  joyous  toward 
his  bed ; "  where,  thus  sadly-joyously  ensconced,  his 
princely  person  is  to  be  "under  sure  and  good 
watch,"  duly  kept  for  safeguard  of  "our  son." 

A  subsequent  set  of  rules  is  committed  to  the 
bishop  and  the  earl  conjointly,  regarding  the  house- 
hold of  the  prince.  These  direct  that  mass  shall  be 
said  in  the  hall  for  the  officers  of  the  household, 
at  six  o'clock  every  morning;  at  seven,  matins  in 
the  chapel;  and  at  nine,  "a  mass  by  note,  with  chil- 
dren." The  last  indicates  a  musical  service,  and  it 
sent  the  officials,  after  these  three  duties,  tunefully 
to  breakfast. 

Three  chaplains  guide  this  household,  the  chief 
of  whom  is  the  general  confessor,  and  the  prince's 
almoner.  This  officer  is  directed  to  "  duly,  discreetly 
and  diligently  give  and  distribute  the  prince's  alms 
to  poor  people."  Again,  we  find  an  anxiety  on  the 
king's  part  that  his  child  should  in  nowise  resemble 
himself.  There  was  no  person  at  court  who  so  com- 
monly offended  as  he  in  the  matters  censured  in  the 
following  regulation.  "We  will  that  no  person,  man 
nor  woman,  being  in  our  said  son's  household,  be 
customable  swearer,  brawler,  backbiter,  common 
hazarder,  adulterer,  and  use  words  of  ribawdery,  and 
especially  in  the  presence  of  our  said  son." 

It  was  a  good  custom  of  the  times  that  gave  daily 
companions  to  the  young  prince  —  his  friends  to  be 
hereafter.  These  were  not  more  playmates  than 
school,  or  class-fellows,  and  their  hourly  course  of 
life  was  duly  marked  by  its  appointed  duties.     "  We 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  293 

will,"  SO  runs  the  ordinance  for  their  especial  obser- 
vation, "  that  the  sons  of  noble  lords  and  gentlemen, 
being  in  the  household  with  our  said  son,  arise  at 
a  convenient  hour,  and  hear  their  mass,  and  be  vir- 
tuously brought  up,  and  taught  in  grammar,  music, 
or  other  training  exercises  of  humanity,  according  to 
their  births,  and  after  their  ages,  and  in  nowise  to  be 
suffered  in  idleness  or  in  un virtuous  occupation." 

On  fasting  days  these  well-trained  lads,  who  on 
ordinary  occasions  dined,  perhaps  breakfasted,  at  ten, 
had  to  wait  for  their  repast  till  noon.  The  daily 
supper-hour  was  four ;  and  a  hospitable  ordinance 
directed  that  "strangers  be  served  and  cherished 
according  to  their  behaviours."  Those  "strangers" 
were,  doubtless,  invited  visitors,  none  of  whom  could 
approach  the  prince,  but  under  certain  regulations. 
Stringent  rules  also  directed  that  his  council  and 
household  officers  should  dwell  within  his  court,  not 
without  the  gates  —  the  ushers  being  directed  to 
lodge  them  in  as  close  proximity  to  each  other  as  was 
possible.  These  gates  were  closed,  from  Michaelmas 
to  May,  at  nine  in  the  evening ;  during  the  other 
part  of  the  year  they  remained  open  an  hour  later. 
After  that  hour,  and  before  six  in  the  morning,  no 
person  could  enter  the  prince's  residence  without 
especial  license  of  some  member  of  his  council,  who 
thought  there  was  "cause  reasonable."  The  gate- 
wardens  were  further  directed  to  suffer  no  man  to 
enter  the  said  gates  with  weapons,  but  they  be  left 
at  the  same,  and  no  dishonest  or  unknown  person  to 
come  in  without  his  cause  be  well  understood  and 
known ;  and  that  they  suffer  no  stuff  to  be  embezzled 
out  of  the  gates. 


294       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

A  prohibition  to  the  purveyors  from  taking  of 
others  "stuff  without  true  contentation  for  the 
same,"  is  in  fact  only  one  of  several  decrees  against 
bribery  on  the  part  of  the  prince's  tradesmen  to 
the  purveyors  of  his  household.  Indeed,  there  was 
strict  supervisal  of  the  servants  generally,  they  being 
ordered  to  "indent"  (sign  a  book,  or  make  their 
mark)  with  the  prince's  council,  "for  all  such  stuff 
as  shall  be  delivered  unto  them  for  their  offices." 

In  such  a  household,  royal  as  it  was,  there  would 
naturally  be  quarrelsome  fellows,  but  there  were  also 
certain  pairs  of  stocks  to  which  they  were  consigned, 
if  they  broke  the  prince's  peace,  —  particularly,  if 
they  drew  weapon  within  the  precincts  of  his  resi- 
dence. A  second  offence  of  this  brawling  nature 
cost  them  their  places. 

All  accounts  were  made  up  weekly ;  and  for  regu- 
lar pay,  honest  and  regular  service  was  expected.  If 
an  officer  of  the  household  was  absent,  a  very  trouble- 
some official  called  clerk  of  the  cheque  notified  the 
fact  to  the  comptroller.  Every  man  under  the  prince's 
roof  was  required  to  "give  his  time  and  due  attend- 
ance and  obediently  exercise  his  office,  and  at  all  times 
be  furnished  with  horse  and  harness  "  (armour)  "  ac- 
cording to  their  degrees ;  and  not  to  be  absent  with- 
out sufficient  license  ;  and  such  as  shall  have  servants, 
that  these  be  personable  and  able  to  stand  in  a  man's 
stead,  and  no  children." 

A  financial  clause  directs  the  receivers  and  cham- 
berlains of  the  counties  and  principalities  from  which 
Edward  of  the  Sanctuary  had  his  titles,  to  deliver  all 
sums  due  to  him,  to  his  council,  who  were  to  keep 
the  same  in  a  chest,  under  three  keys,  —  "  our  dear- 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  295 

est  wife,  the  queen,  to  have  one;  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester  and  Earl  Rivers  to  have  the  other  two,  — 
and  that  our  said  son's  signet  be  put  into  the  said 
coffer,  and  not  to  be  occupied  (used)  but  by  the  ad- 
vice of  his  council."  To  the  latter  two  individuals 
power  was  also  given  to  remove  the  prince  at  any 
time  and  to  any  place,  as  necessity  might  require, 
or  ''shall  be  thought  by  their  discretion  necessary." 
This  illustrates  the  uncertainty  of  the  times  and  of 
Edward's  tenure  of  the  throne.  In  this  very  year, 
when  such  regulations  were  being  made  to  secure  the 
comfort  of  a  child  who  was  soon  to  be  cruelly  mur- 
dered, the  distress  in  the  land  was  sore,  but  the 
energy  of  the  government,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
relieve  it  was  immense.  One  illustration  of  this 
energy  we  find  in  the  exacting  of  a  "  voluntary  con- 
tribution," to  enable  the  king  to  maintain  his  and  his 
son's  household  at  home,  and  to  supply  means  for 
carrying  on  an  imminent  war.  The  exaction  was 
occasionally  pleasant  enough  in  its  method,  as  may 
be  guessed  from  an  incident  mentioned  by  Trussel 
who  says,  that,  "The  king's  kiss  to  a  sparing,  and 
therefore  a  rich,  widow  (amongst  many  others  drawn 
in  by  court  holy  water,  to  make  oblation)  brought  in 
twenty  pounds  more  than  was  demanded,  for  that 
being  but  twenty,  she  gave  forty."  Had  the  per- 
formance thus  rewarded  taken  place,  not  in  the  king's 
but  the  prince's  household,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester 
might  have  put  the  actors  in  the  stocks.  King  Ed- 
ward was  especially  concerned  for  the  good  of  that 
household,  of  which  it  only  remains  further  to  be 
said,  that  there  was  continually  ordained  therein 
"a  physician  and  surgeon  sufficient  and  cunning" 


296       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  keep  the  little  prince  and  his  retinue  in  good 
bodily  health.' 

Such  was  the  house-rule  of  a  Prince  of  Wales  in 
the  year  1473.  I  use  here  the  term  "  Prince  of 
Wales,"  although  Edward  of  the  Sanctuary  was 
not  so  created  until  the  year  1477.  The  above  regu- 
lations, however,  show  him  to  be  in  possession  of  the 
revenues  not  only  of  Cornwall  and  Chester,  but  of 
the  principality  —  which  revenues  were  held  for  him 
by  his  mother,  his  kinsman  Rivers,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester. 

All  these  precautions  for  the  comfort,  well-being, 
and  education  of  the  prince  only  served,  however,  a 
temporary  purpose.  The  effect  of  their  exercise  was 
to  form  a  well-trained  boy  full  of  promise;  but 
before  the  fruit  ripened  the  branch  was  blasted. 

Meanwhile,  the  usual  distinction  was  conferred 
upon  him.  In  1477,  when  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Clarence,  "  drowned  without  water,  upon  dry  ground," 
as  Sir  Thomas  More  quaintly  expresses  it,  —  when 
the  murder  of  the  first  brother  to  a  king  who  was 
ever  attainted  in  England,  might  have  been  expected 
to  cast,  if  not  mourning,  a  decent  quiet  upon  the 
court,  there  appeared  no  face  there  but  that  of  jollity 
and  magnificence.  For  "at  that  time  was  Edward, 
eldest  son  to  the  king  (during  Christmas,  to  mingle 
solemnity  with  liberty),  inaugurated  Prince  of  Wales, 
Duke  of  Cornwall,  and  Earl  of  Chester ;  and  his 
younger  brother  Richard,  created  Duke  of  York,  — 
the  fate  of  their  honours  and  their  ruin  being  still  the 
same."  At  this  creation,  adds  More,  "according  to 
the  ceremony,  many  young  lords  and  gentlemen  of 
'  Lambeth  Pal.  MSB.  647,  f.  i.     Halliwell  citante. 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  297 

principal  name,  were  made  Knights  of  the  Bath, 
among  whom  Brian,  chief  justice  of  the  Common 
Pleas,  and  Littleton,  that  learned  father  of  the  laws, 
are  registered." 

After  this  creation,  young  Edward  of  the  Sanctu- 
ary only  appears  occasionally,  on  state  occasions. 
He  seems  to  have  been  kept  much  apart  from  his 
brother  and  sisters ;  but  something  is  to  be  collected 
touching  his  outward  adornment  and  appearance,  from 
the  wardrobe  book  of  his  father,  the  king.  P'or  ex- 
ample :  "  To  the  right  high  and  right  mighty  Prince 
Edward,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Prince  of  Wales,  Duke 
of  Cornwall,  Earl  of  Chester,  the  first-begotton  son 
of  our  said  sovereign  lord  King  Edward  IV.  —  to 
have  of  the  gift  of  our  said  sovereign  lord  the  king, 
five  yards  of  white  cloth  of  gold  tissue  for  a  gown, 
by  virtue  of  a  warrant  under  the  king's  signet,  and 
sign  manual,  bearing  date  the  17th  day  of  August, 
in  the  twentieth  year  of  the  most  noble  reign  of  our 
said  sovereign  lord  the  king,  —  unto  the  said  Piers 
Courteys  for  the  delivery  of  the  said  cloth  of  gold 
direct :  —  which  cloth  of  gold  tissue,  five  yards." 

The  above  is  the  only  entry  in  the  wardrobe 
account  of  Edward  IV.  for  the  year  1480,  in  which 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  then  ten  years  of  age, 
is  named.  His  little  brother  of  York  is  more  fre- 
quently noticed,  —  in  one  entry,  he  is  presented  with 
a  mantle  of  blue  velvet,  lined  with  white  damask, 
garnished  with  a  "garter  of  ruddeur,"  and  a  lace  of 
blue  silk  with  buttons  of  gold.  At  another  time  he 
has  purple  and  green  velvet,  green  damask,  and  white 
cloth  of  gold,  for  gowns  ;  and  again,  crimson  velvet, 
and  "velvet   upon  velvet  green  cloth  of  gold,"  for 


298       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

covering  for  the  harness  and  saddle  for  his  use ;  and 
further  entries  this  year  of  parcels  of  blue  satin  for 
gowns  and  purple  velvet  for  lining,  and  green  satin 
gowns  lined  with  black  sarsnet,  show  that  he  must 
have  been  a  remarkably  well-dressed  little  prince,  — 
and  doubtless  his  elder  brother  of  Wales  was  not 
inferior  to  him  in  splendour  and  costliness  of  attire. 

From  the  very  earliest  age,  the  heir  apparent  was 
present  at  all  state  and  ordinary  court  ceremonies. 
When  only  eighteen  months  old  he  was  brought  in 
to  add  his  welcome  to  that  of  others  given  to  illus- 
trious visitors  to  the  king  and  queen ;  and  on  these 
occasions  he  was  carried,  not  by  his  nurse,  but  by 
his  chamberlain.  Master  Vaughan,  who  also  bore  the 
young  prince,  decked  out  in  robes  of  state,  at  such 
ceremonies  as  creating  a  peer  or  begirding  a  knight. 
On  more  interesting  occasions,  too,  than  this,  we 
have  a  glimpse  of  the  young  prince ;  as,  for  instance, 
when  Lord  Rivers  introduced  to  Edward  and  his 
consort  his  printer,  Caxton,  with  a  newly  printed 
book.  Between  his  parents,  seated  on  handsome 
chairs,  stood  the  fair  young  prince,  looking  through 
his  clustering  curls  at  the  marvellous  man,  by  whose 
art  the  sad  story  of  the  little  spectator  was  to  be 
made  more  familiar  to  a  world  of  sorrowing  readers. 

Nor  is  his  presence  to  be  detected  only  at  solemn 
and  stately  ceremonies.  Once  in  his  life  he  was 
present  at  the  most  curious  and  frolicsome  of  wed- 
dings, —  that  of  his  brother  Richard  with  Anne 
Mowbray,  heiress  of  the  duchy  of  Norfolk.  The 
bridegroom  was  in  his  fifth  year,  the  little  lady  had 
just  entered  her  fourth,  and  there  was  a  vast  amount 
of  mirth  at  this  match,  which  ended  by  a  banquet 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  299 

and  romps  in  the  Painted  Chamber.  This  event 
occurred  in  the  same  year  that  Edward  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary was  created  Prince  of  Wales. 

There  was  also  a  similitude  of  business  created  for 
him,  as  well  as  a  reality  of  fleeting  pleasure,  of  both 
of  which  he  was  to  enjoy  so  little.  Thus,  in  the  last 
year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  1483,  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  all  young  as  he  was,  was  sent  down  to  Ludlow 
Castle,  there  to  nominally  preside  over  the  adjacent 
principality,  and  to  keep  in  submission  the  Welsh, 
who,  without  being  in  insurrection,  gave  much  trouble 
to  the  sick  and  languid  king,  and  unheard-of  vexa- 
tion to  municipal  authorities,  striving  in  vain  to  keep 
them  from  acts  of  violence.  Edward  of  the  Sanctuary 
proved  a  pacificator,  and  the  Welsh,  who  refused  to 
respect  the  laws,  had  reverence  for  this  helpless  boy. 
More  finds  a  reason  for  this,  in  that  the  Welsh 
"  have  always  been  very  affectionate  to  those  princes 
who  have  borne  the  title  of  their  principality,  as 
being  memorials  of  their  ancient  liberty  and  domin- 
ion." For  this  reason  we  are  told  that  they  showed 
wonderful  respect  to  Edward,  to  whom,  though  but 
a  child,  "they  were  more  obedient  than  ever  they 
were  known  to  be  to  their  ancient  magistrates." 

Edward  was  surrounded  by  a  court  consisting 
chiefly  of  his  own  kinsmen  on  his  mother's  side. 
The  queen  had  so  surrounded  her  youthful  son  in 
order  that  his  interests  might  be  the  better  protected, 
and  chief  among  these  guardians  of  the  prince  was 
his  loyal  and  valiant  governor,  his  uncle  Anthony 
Woodville,   Earl   Rivers. 

While  the  prince  was  at  Ludlow,  his  father  lay 
dying  at  Westminster,  surrounded  by  relatives  and 


300       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

nobles  bitterly  antagonistic  to  each  other,  and  fore- 
boding in  his  heart  evil  to  his  son,  from  the  dissen- 
sions that  were  likely  to  ensue.  Trussel  cites  a  very 
long  speech  which  Edward  is  said  to  have  delivered 
on  his  death-bed.  It  is  brilliant  with  morahty,  piety, 
philosophy,  and  policy,  and  is  perhaps  founded  on  a 
few  words  of  farewell  and  warning  which  he  may 
have  uttered.  Its  chief  object  is  the  safety  and 
prosperity  of  his  heir. 

After  this  royal  death,  in  April,  1483,  Edward  of 
the  Sanctuary  was  brought  on  his  way  to  London, 
in  the  care  of  Earl  Rivers,  and  unescorted  except  by 
a  few  menial  servants.  Small  as  this  company  was, 
it  became  divided,  young  Edward  sleeping  one  night 
at  Stony  Stratford,  when  his  tardy  uncle  was  only  at 
Northampton.  Between  those  two  localities,  the 
Dukes  of  Gloucester  and  Buckingham  appeared  with 
an  armed  force,  and  no  man  was  permitted  to  pass 
that  night  between  those  towns,  save  the  emissaries 
of  the  two  dukes.  At  an  inn,  in  Northampton,  the 
two  dukes  supped  in  familiar  and  friendly  fashion 
with  the  earl,  ending  the  night  by  forcibly  placing 
him  in  arrest,  and  then  riding  forward  to  Stony 
Stratford,  where  with  much  show  of  loyalty  they 
saluted,  and  took  possession  of  young  Edward  of  the 
Sanctuary. 

From  this  moment  to  that  of  his  death  he  was  a 
prisoner.  The  last  gleam  of  seeming  life  and  liberty 
allowed  him  was  at  Hornsey,  where  he  was  enter- 
tained at  a  banquet,  given  in  his  honour  by  the  city 
of  London,  and  where,  for  the  first  time,  his  health 
was  drunk  in  public,  as  King  Edward  V.  Further, 
therefore,  it  is  not  my  province  to  accompany  him. 


EDWARD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  301 

How  the  brief  life,  commenced  in  captivity  in  the 
Sanctuary,  ended  by  murder  in  the  Tower,  need  not 
here  be  recapitulated. 

I  will  only  add  a  word  of  his  brothers  and  sisters. 
Of  these  young  Edward  was  most  associated,  after 
the  establishment  of  his  household,  with  his  elder 
sister  Elizabeth,  whose  love  for  him  and  his  unhappy 
brother,  the  little  Duke  of  York,  is  well  known. 
The  family  of  Edward  IV.  and  Elizabeth  Woodville 
consisted  of  ten  children.  Of  this  family  three  were 
boys,  Edward,  Richard  of  Shrewsbury  (Duke  of 
York),  and  George.  The  last  named  died  in  his 
infancy.  Of  the  seven  daughters,  Elizabeth  became 
the  wife  of  Henry  VH. ;  Mary  died  unmarried,  in 
her  twenty-sixth  year.  Cicely  had  a  peculiar  destiny ; 
affianced  to  a  king  (of  Scotland),  the  downfall  of  her 
father's  house  prevented  the  marriage;  she  subse- 
quently espoused  a  lord,  —  Viscount  Willes,  —  and  on 
his  death  united  herself  with  a  Lincolnshire  esquire, 
one  Thomas  Kyme.  The  period  of  her  death  is 
unknown,  but  it  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  Isle 
of  Wight.  Anne,  the  next  daughter,  was  engaged 
to  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  but  she  was  ultimately 
content  to  marry  Thomas,  Lord  Howard,  who  was 
allowed  by  Henry  VII.  to  draw  ;£i20  per  annum 
for  her  diet.  She  died  before  her  husband,  and  left 
no  children  surviving.  The  next  daughter,  Katha- 
rine, like  her  sisters,  was  affianced  to  crowned  princes, 
but  subsequently  married  in  a  much  lower  degree, 
namely,  to  Lord  William  Courtney,  afterward  Earl 
of  Devon.  Like  her  sisters,  too,  she  was  almost 
entirely  supported  by  the  court.  She  was  left  a 
widow,  in  1511,  when  thirty-three  years  of  age,  and 


302        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  keep  off  all  suitors,  she  made  a  vow  before  the 
Bishop  of  London  never  to  change  her  widowed  con- 
dition. The  youngest  daughter  of  this  remarkable 
family,  Bridget,  enjoyed  perhaps  the  most  enviable, 
certainly  the  most  tranquil,  fortune  of  them  all.  In 
early  youth  she  took  the  veil  at  Dartford,  her  sister, 
the  queen,  paying  jCi3  6s.  Sd.  per  annum  for  her 
support  in  the  nunnery,  in  which  she  remained  till 
the  period  of  her  death,  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of 
her  age. 


CHAPTER   XL 

EDWARD    OF    MIDDLEHAM    (YORK) 
Bom  1474.     Died  1484 

On  the  south  bank  of  the  Yore  —  that  pleasant 
stream  which  runs  like  a  line  of  light  through  Wens- 
leydale,  in  Yorkshire  —  stands  the  neat  and  quiet 
little  town  of  Middleham,  once  the  capital  of  the 
Dale  district.  Above  the  town  frown  the  grim 
ruins  of  a  castle,  which  was  commenced  by  the  Fitz- 
Randolphs,  was  completed  by  the  Nevilles,  and  was 
destroyed,  so  far  as  it  is  now  seen,  by  time  and  —  of 
course  —  Oliver  Cromwell ! 

Middleham  was  the  property  of  the  Earl  of  War- 
wick, the  father  of  the  Lady  Anne  who  was  the  first 
Princess  of  Wales  who  became  a  queen-consort,  and 
who  brought  with  her  hand  this  castle  and  territory 
of  Middleham  to  her  second  husband,  Richard,  Duke 
of  Gloucester.  There  is  a  tradition  —  or  supposition 
rather  —  that,  in  their  childish  days,  Richard  and 
Anne  passed  some  time  together  under  the  old  roof 
of  the  castle,  whose  masters  were  the  **  Peacocks  of 
the  North."  That  they  met  in  their  youth  is  well 
known,  and  that  Richard,  who  was  altogether  a  pre- 
cocious individual,  loved  the  little  Lady  Anne  in  his 
boyhood,  and  met  with  small  return  of  affection,  is 
also  a  portion  of  the  Middleham  legend. 

303 


304       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

We  come  to  facts  concerning  this  ill-matched  pair, 
as  soon  as  we  have  passed  away  from  the  bloody  field 
of  Tewkesbury,  where  Gloucester  made  no  secret  of 
his  purpose  to  marry  the  widow  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
Edward  of  Westminster.  She  was  under  attainder, 
and  Middleham  is  said  to  have  been  a  forfeited  estate, 
already  conferred  by  the  king  on  Gloucester.  But 
Richard,  at  all  events,  coveted  the  lady  as  well  as  the 
land ;  and  the  lady,  having  no  heart  for  such  a  wooer, 
concealed  herself  in  London,  and  even  passed,  in  the 
disguise  of  a  servant,  for  a  menial  in  a  citizen's  fam- 
ily, the  better  to  hide  from  her  high-shouldered  and 
cruel-minded  suitor. 

In  her  purpose  she  was  abetted  and  aided  by 
Gloucester's  brother  Clarence,  who  had  married 
Anne's  sister  and  great  coheiress,  Isabella,  and  who 
was  interested  in  Anne's  remaining  a  widow,  in  order 
that  her  rich  possessions  might  fall  to  his  wife  and 
himself,  or  to  their  children. 

Notwithstanding  this  opposition  and  concealment, 
the  young  Duke  of  Gloucester  overcame  his  brother, 
discovered  the  lady,  and  married  her,  consenting  or 
otherwise,  in  the  year  1473.  He  was  then  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  his  bride  just  two  years  younger. 
Their  only  child,  Edward  of  Middleham,  was  born  in 
the  following  year,  in  the  castle  so  named,  the  resi- 
dence of  his  parents.  For  nine  years  little  is  known 
of  him  ;  they  included  the  best  years  of  his  father's 
life,  —  for,  during  their  course,  the  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter recovered  from  the  Scots  that  town  and  castle 
of  Berwick  which  had  been  sold  to  them  by  the  last 
Lancastrian  king ;  and  he  had  founded  those  religious 
and  charitable  establishments  in  and  about  Middle- 


EDWARD  OF  MIDDLEHAM  305 

ham,  the  relics  of  which,  whether  in  ruins,  or  in  arms 
yet  available,  have  preserved  a  grateful  memory  of 
Richard  in  that  part  of  Wensleydale. 

About  the  castle  precincts  and  the  tranquil  valley 
the  little  Lord  Edward  rode  in  cloth  of  green,  a 
feather  in  his  cap,  and  whip  in  hand,  upon  a  northern 
pony.  From  the  tranquil  routine  of  such  a  life  he 
was  suddenly  summoned  with  his  mother,  in  1483,  to 
repair  to  London,  where  his  father  already  held  as 
king.  Mother  and  child  set  out  on  a  brilliant  prog- 
ress, the  last  in  which  Anne  took  part,  —  the  first 
and  last  in  which  the  prince  had  share.  They  slept 
in  convent  or  castle  by  the  way,  offering  alms  at  the 
nearest  shrines,  as  they  arrived  and  departed.  Early 
in  July  they  reached  London,  where  they  were  lodged 
at  Baynard's  Castle,  the  house  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
Woodville.  On  the  first  Sunday  in  the  July  of  that 
year,  Prince  Edward  was  of  the  water-pageant  which 
illustrated  the  passage  of  his  parents  from  the  last- 
named  residence  to  the  palace  of  the  Tower.  On 
that  same  day  he  was  proclaimed  Prince  of  Wales ; 
and  on  the  evening  of  that  day  the  "  young  princes  " 
in  the  Tower  were  removed  from  the  state-apart- 
ments, which  were  occupied  by  the  new  heir  and  his 
royal  parents.  Edward  of  Middleham  slept  that 
night  in  the  bed  previously  occupied  by  Edward  of 
the  Sanctuary.  The  latter,  with  little  Richard  of 
Shrewsbury,  Duke  of  York,  slept  for  the  first  time 
in  the  bed  wherein  they  were  soon  after  murdered. 
Such  were  the  changes  of  the  royal  family  of  that 
period. 

The  following  day  was  that  of  the  first  coronation 
of  Richard  and  Anne,  a  gorgeous  spectacle,  at  which 


3o6        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  prince  was  present.  Then  ensued  a  trip  to  Wind- 
sor, and  thither  came,  now  that  he  was  heir  of  Eng- 
land, the  Spanish  ambassador,  to  propose  a  marriage 
between  Edward  of  Middleham  and  the  eldest  daugh- 
ter of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Arragon.  The  lady 
in  question  was  that  Isabella  who  subsequently  mar- 
ried Don  Juan,  the  heir  of  Portugal,  and  was  the 
eldest  of  four  daughters,  the  youngest  of  whom, 
Katherine  of  Arragon,  not  yet  born,  ultimately 
married  two  brothers,  both  Princes  of  Wales,  — 
Arthur  and  Henry  Tudor. 

From  Windsor,  Prince  Edward  accompanied  his 
mother  to  Warwick  Castle.  This  residence  was  then 
the  property  of  the  young  Earl  of  Warwick,  son  of 
"  Malmsey  Clarence  "  and  Isabel  Neville,  the  sister 
of  and  coheiress  with  the  consort  of  Richard  III. 
Here  they  kept  court  alone,  for  the  space  of  three 
weeks,  at  the  termination  of  which  period  they  were 
joined  by  the  king,  who  had  unsuccessfully  com- 
menced a  work  at  London,  for  the  perfecting  of 
which  the  only  fitting  tool  was  to  be  found  in  War- 
wick Castle.  This  person  was  James  Tyrrell,  after- 
ward "Sir  James,"  the  directing  murderer  in  the 
assassination  at  the  Tower.  Did  Richard,  whose 
heart  for  his  only  child  was  as  tender  as  that  of  any 
young  mother's,  look  on  his  sleeping  son  that  night 
on  which  he  despatched  Tyrrell  to  murder  the  sons 
of  his  brother  in  the  Tower  ?  If  he  did,  he  probably 
reconciled  himself  to  any  vexed  conscience  by  which 
he  may  have  been  possessed,  by  murmuring  that  the 
deed  was  to  be  done  to  secure  the  glory,  greatness, 
and  safety  of  that  unconscious  and  innocent  boy. 

When  that  dire  deed  was  accomplished,  Richard 


9(1}  ni  loritoid  i\(i  )o  ^^o^  arit  labium  oT" 

"lOwoT 


>K  OF    IHE   PRINCES  OV    A" 

:c  was  present.    Then  ensued  a  i 
thither  came,  now  that  he  was  hcu 
the  Spanish  ambassador,  to  propose  a  man 

tween  Edward  of  Middleham  and  the  eldest  daugh- 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Arragon.  The  lady 
in  question  was  that  Isabella  who  subsequently  mar- 
ried Don  Juan,  the  heir  of  Portugal,  and  was  the 
eldest  of  four  dau^chters,  the  youngest  of  whom, 
Katheriiv'  of  \fr,£/t,r.  not  yet  bom,  ultimately 
married  i    Princes   of   Wales,  — 

Arthur 

From    v,..,vi-v..,    x.ir.v^   .  ....^^.,^A    k;g 

mother  to  Warwick  Castle.  ' 

the  prt>perty  of  the  young   i 

"M::' '"-- ••      ^    ' 

of  a 

Here  they  kept  court  alone,  for  the  space  of  three 
weeks,  at  the  termination  of  which  period  they  were 
joined   by   the  king,  who  had   unsuccessfully  com- 
na^^ced  a  work  at   London,  for  the   perfecting  of 
which  the  only  fitting  tool  was  to  be  found  in  \' 
wick  Castle.     This  person  was  James  Tv'T^^^^ 
ward   "Sir  James,*'   the  directing   mtn 
assassination   at   the   Towf 

heart  ir~  ^'■'  ^"^'  -^^  ' '  —         -in.;i.-j   ,i-.  uva^    w  -.-  ; 
young  11  tTwjf  ^o^i  that  ftt|;bi 

on  which  he  despat<  ier  the  sons 

of  his  brotbt'^  '      '  he  probably 

reconciled  hi:  ace  by  which 

he  may  have  be«n  V'osacssed,  by  murmuring  that  the 
deed  wn  '^  to  secure  the  glory,  greatness, 

and  safe: ,  ii  unconscious  and  innocent  boy. 

When  that  dire  deed  was  accomplished,  Richard 

"To  murder  the  sons  of  his  brother  In  the 
Tower " 

rhi'iof^ra'.'urc  front  thf  f>iiiiiti»g  l>y  Otto  Setts 


EDWARD  OF  MIDDLEHAM  307 

and  Anne,  and  young  Edward  passed  on  in  trium- 
phant  progress  through  Coventry  to  York,  where,  as 
if  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  the  king  and  queen 
were  once  more  crowned,  and  Richard  recreated  his 
son  Prince  of  Wales,  investing  him  a  second  time 
with  garland,  ring,  and  sovereign-rod.  So  much  did 
he  do,  to  have  recognised  as  heir  in  the  north  — where 
Richard  was  personally  popular  —  that  boy,  "  whose 
singular  wit,"  he  said,  "and  endowments  of  nature 
wherewith  (his  young  age  considered)  he  is  remark- 
ably furnished,  do  portend,  by  the  favour  of  God, 
that  he  will  make  an  honest  man."  Thus,  the  eldest 
and  the  youngest  son  of  Richard  of  York  alike 
agreed  in  a  desire  to  make  of  their  respective  off- 
spring men  of  superior  quality  to  themselves. 

And  here  let  me  remark  that  Richard  had  a  heart, 
however  cold  it  may  have  been  toward  others,  that 
loved  to  dwell  on  the  perfections  of  his  own  children. 
Thus  when  he  appointed  his  youthful  son,  John  of 
Gloucester,  a  natural  child,  to  the  office  of  captain 
of  Calais,  he  was  led  to  do  so,  he  said,  because  the 
great  liveliness  of  his  wit,  the  agiHty  of  his  limbs, 
and  his  proneness  toward  good  manners,  afforded  a 
great  and  undoubted  hope  of  receiving  from  him, 
through  the  divine  grace,  good  service  in  time  to 
come.  The  deed  which  gives  to  John  of  Gloucester 
the  important  office  named  aboVe  is  dated  March 
II,  1485.  The  Prince  of  Wales  had  then  been 
several  months  dead;  his  mother  was  then  dying, 
and  after  the  former  great  calamity,  Richard  seemed 
to  find  consolation  in  exalting  the  virtues  and  enno- 
bhng  the  person  of  his  illegitimate  son. 

The  legitimate  boy,  for  whom  Richard  had  accom- 


3o8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

plished  so  much  in  London  and  York,  walked  through 
the  streets  of  the  northern  capital  that  afternoon, 
jewelled,  and  mantelled,  and  "  demi-crowned "  as 
became  an  heir  apparent,  led  by  his  mother  and  pre- 
ceded by  the  king.  And  so  passed  on  the  brilliant 
company  to  Pontefract,  where  intelligence  arrived  of 
menacing  outbreaks,  which  threatened  the  crown  of 
Richard,  and  the  succession  of  young  Edward.  To 
suppress  these,  the  king  turned  southward,  accom- 
panied by  Anne  ;  the  prince  being  sent  under  careful 
escort  to  Middleham  Castle ;  and  there  or  elsewhere 
parents  and  child  never,  I  think,  met  again. 

But  the  welfare  of  this  child  was  ever  uppermost 
in  Richard's  mind.  In  whatever  pubUc  act  he  took 
part  that  had  respect  to  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom, 
he  thought  of  this  boy.  When  the  father  was  in 
London,  in  the  February  of  1484,  the  Continuator 
of  the  Chronicle  of  Croyland  tells  us  that  "  one  day 
at  this  period,  in  the  month  of  February,  shortly 
after  midday,  nearly  all  the  lords  of  the  realm,  both 
spiritual  and  temporal,  together  with  the  higher 
knights  and  esquires  of  the  king's  household  (among 
all  of  whom  John  Howard,  who  had  lately  been 
created  by  the  king  Duke  of  Norfolk,  seemed  at  that 
time  to  hold  the  highest  rank),  met  together,  at  the 
special  command  of  the  king,  in  a  certain  lower 
room,  near  the  passage  which  leads  to  the  queen's 
apartments,  and  here  each  subscribed  his  name  to  a 
kind  of  new  oath,  drawn  up  by  some  persons  to  me 
unknown,  of  adherence  to  Edward,  the  king's  only 
son,  as  their  supreme  lord,  in  case  anything  should 
happen  to  his  father." 

At  this  time  the  affairs  of  Richard  wore  promise 


EDWARD  OF  MIDDLEHAM  309 

of  prosperity.  King  Edward's  widow  and  daughters 
were  in  his  power;  he  had  trodden  out  the  first 
flame  of  insurrection,  and  seated  firmly  on  the  throne 
himself,  he  sought  to  render  the  accession  of  his  son 
secure.  He  thought  he  had  just  accomplished  this 
desired  fact  when  the  young  prince  himself,  in  the 
midst  of  good  health,  was  taken  suddenly  ill,  growing 
gradually  and  mysteriously  worse,  and  finally  passing 
away,  by  "an  unhappy  death,"  as  Rous  calls  it  — 
referring  to  some  conceived  evil  manner  of  death 
(it  would  seem)  rather  than  to  actually  dying,  on  the 
last  day  of  March,  1484.  The  Continuator  of  the 
Chronicle  of  Croyland,  alluding  to  the  king's  designs, 
and  the  counter  disposition  of  Providence,  remarks 
that,  despite  the  securing  the  allegiance  of  the  nobles 
for  the  son  at  Westminster  : 

"  In  a  short  time  after  it  was  fully  seen  how  vain 
are  the  thoughts  of  a  man  who  desires  to  estabHsh 
his  interests  without  the  aid  of  God.  For  in  the  fol- 
lowing month  of  April,  on  a  day  not  very  far  distant 
from  the  anniversary  of  King  Edward,  this  only  son 
of  his,  in  whom  all  the  hopes  of  the  royal  succession, 
fortified  with  so  many  oaths,  were  centred,  was  seized 
with  an  illness  of  but  short  duration,  and  died  at 
Middleham  Castle,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1484, 
being  the  first  of  the  reign  of  the  said  King  Richard. 
On  hearing  the  news  of  this  at  Nottingham,  where 
they  were  then  residing,  you  might  have  seen  his 
father  and  mother,  in  a  state  almost  bordering  on 
madness,  by  reason  of  their  sudden  grief."  So  died, 
beneath  the  house  roof  where  he  was  born,  and  so 
was  lamented  this  youthful  Prince  of  Wales,  Edward 
of  Middleham,  the  boy  of  Wensleydale. 


31  o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

In  some  document  which  Richard  had  to  sign  after 
his  son's  death,  the  name  of  the  young  prince  occurred, 
and  that  name  is  followed  by  the  words  "  whom  may 
God  pardon  !  "  This  expression  was  probably  not  a 
mere  formality.  It  may  have  been  wrung  from  the 
heart  of  a  man  who  had  shown  no  mercy  toward 
other  fathers  and  their  children,  and  to  whom  par- 
don from  God  seemed  the  highest  blessing  he  could 
ask  for  the  innocent  child  whom  Heaven,  in  its  mercy, 
had  removed  to  the  far  and  better  land. 

In  the  March  of  the  following  year,  the  body  of 
his  mother  was  entombed  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
In  the  August  following,  the  crown  of  England  was 
hanging  on  a  hawthorn-bush  on  Bosworth  field,  and 
the  corpse  of  the  first  English  monarch  who  had 
fallen  in  fight,  since  Harold,  was  carried  to  Leicester 
with  a  halter  round  the  neck.  Thus  terminated 
in  1485  the  dream  of  Richard,  with  whose  death 
ended  a  struggle  unrighteously  commenced  by  Henry 
of  Bolingbroke,  in  1399.  It  began  with  the  dis- 
placing of  a  Richard  by  a  Harry,  and  it  ended  in  the 
triumph  of  a  Harry  over  a  Richard ;  and,  by  the 
period  that  York  and  Lancaster  became  united  in 
the  persons  of  Henry  VII.  and  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Edward  IV.,  this  unnatural  contest  had  cost  the 
precious  lives  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 
Englishmen,  slain  by  each  others*  hands ! 


Book  III. 

Princes  of  Wales  of  the 
House  of  Tudor 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   BROTHER  -  PRINCES   OF    WALES 

Arthur  of  Winchester.    Bom  i486.    Died  (Prince  of  Wales)  1502  — 
Henry  of  Greenwich.    Bom  1491.    Died  (Henry  VIH.)  1547. 

The  marriage  of  Henry  VII.  with  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Edward  IV.,  only  united  the  illegitimate 
blood  of  Lancaster  with  that  of  York.  Henry  was 
descended  from  John  Beaufort,  Duke  of  Somerset, 
eldest  natural  son  of  John  of  Gaunt  and  Catherine 
Swinford.  His  Valois  and  Welsh  blood  was  derived 
from  his  grandmother,  Katherine  (widow  of  Henry 
VI.)  and  her  second  husband,  Owen  Tudor.  The  mix- 
ture of  blood  was  completed  by  the  descent  of  each  of 
the  royal  pair  from  an  ancient  royal  lineage  of  Wales, 
—  that  of  Henry  pretending  to  go  back  to  Cadwal- 
lader  himself.  Thus,  in  him  was  accomplished  the 
prophecy  of  the  British  king.  The  blood,  though  not 
the  bones  of  the  great  monarch,  had  returned  to 
Britain,  and  the  dragon  of  the  great  Pendragonship 
blazed  once  more  on  the  helm  of  the  monarch  of  the 
Isle. 

The  royal  marriage  was  celebrated  on  the  i8th  of 
January,  i486.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year,  Henry 
and  Elizabeth  were  residing  at  Winchester,  —  the 
great  stage  of  the  bright  glories  of  the  Arthur  of 

313 


314       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

romance.  In  the  September  of  that  year,  in  the  old 
castle  of  that  renowned  city,  their  first  child  was  bom, 
—  a  prince,  strong  and  able,  though  prematurely 
entering  on  the  world,  the  which,  as  Lord  Verulam 
remarks,  "physicians  do  prejudge." 

This  royal  birth,  premature  as  it  may  have  been, 
was  distinguished  by  the  general  satisfaction  it  af- 
forded. It  brought  happiness  to  the  king,  gave  a 
young  mother's  joy  to  the  queen,  excited  in  the 
Church  a  sovereign  delight,  filled  the  courtiers  with 
excess  of  pleasure,  and  rendered  the  entire  nation 
jubilant.  And  Henry  Tudor  called  his  son  Arthur. 
He  despised  Norman  "  William,"  and  Saxon  "  Edward," 
and  "  Richard,"  and  even  "  Henry,"  which  distin- 
guished the  Lancaster  kings,  and  to  the  new-bom 
child  he  gave  the  name  borne  by  the  flower  of  guile- 
less kings,  —  the  British  name  of  Arthur. 

The  father  augured  for  the  child  a  glory  like  that 
of  the  monarch  of  old  time;  the  boy's  fate,  in  one 
point,  at  least,  rather  resembled  that  of  his  prince- 
namesake,  who  was  heir  to  the  throne  which  he  was 
never  to  ascend.  So  Arthur  he  was  named,  although 
his  tardy  godfather,  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  arrived  too 
late  at  the  christening  to  pronounce  the  name  by 
which  he  should  be  called.  There  seems  to  have 
been  much  more  in  it,  then,  than  may  be  discovered 
now;  "for  thereat,"  says  Grafton,  "Englishmen  no 
more  rejoiced  than  outward  nations  and  foreign 
princes  trembled  and  quaked,  so  much  was  that  name 
to  all  most  terrible  and  fearful." 

In  the  description  of  the  christening  of  Prince 
Arthur  (Addit.  MSS.  6,113),  it  is  stated  that  although 
the  royal  infant  was  born  on  the  Wednesday,  about 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  S^S 

one  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  he  *'  was  not  chris- 
tened till  the  Sunday  next  following,  because  the  Earl 
of  Oxford  was  at  the  time  in  Suffolk,  which  should 
be  one  of  the  godfathers  at  the  font,  and  also  the  sea- 
son was  rainy."  The  writer  further  states  that  imme- 
diately after  the  birth  of  this  heir  to  the  throne,  Te 
Deum  was  sung  in  the  Cathedral  Church  and  all  the 
other  churches  of  Winchester,  "  and  many  great  fires 
in  the  streets,  and  messengers  sent  to  all  the  estates, 
etc.,  of  the  realm  of  the  comfortable  tidings,  to  whom 
were  great  gifts  given."  While  Te  Deum  was  being 
sung,  all  the  church  bells  "  fired  "  by  way  of  accom- 
paniment. A  new  font  of  silver  gilt  was  placed  near 
the  ordinary  font  of  the  cathedral  on  a  stage,  <*  with  a 
step  like  a  block  for  the  bishop  to  stand  on."  The 
font  was  "hallowed"  by  Bishop  Alcock.  Then,  long 
preparatory  ceremonies  had  to  be  gone  through,  such 
as  delivering  the  salt,  after  solemn  assay,  to  the  Earl 
of  Essex,  and  gilt  basons  and  new  towels  to  my  Lord 
Strange,  and  a  grand  marshalling  of  officials  in  readi- 
ness to  receive  the  future  King  Arthur  —  which  he 
was  not  to  be. 

Then  came  the  procession;  torch-bearers  flinging 
their  light  on  high  ;  nobles,  knights,  and  esquires ; 
ecclesiastics,  and  heralds,  and  pursuivants,  and  cup- 
bearers, and  then  tapers  shedding  soft  light  on  Lady 
Anne,  the  queen's  sister,  who  advanced  with  **  a  rich 
chrysom  pinned  on  her  right  breast ; "  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  Lady  Cicely,  the  queen's  sister,  who  bore 
the  little  prince  wrapped  in  a  mantle  of  crimson  cloth 
of  gold  furred  with  ermine;  the  Marquis  of  Dorset 
and  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  rendering  her  assistance. 
This  brilliant  company,  gorgeously  waited  on,  pro- 


3i6        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ceeded  under  a  canopy,  the  queen  the  while  watch- 
ing the  procession,  and  bishops  clustering  around  her, 
and  the  whole  illustrious  assembly  growing  cold  and 
impatient,  as  well  they  might,  seeing  that  "  they  tar- 
ried six  hours  and  more  for  the  coming  of  the  Earl  of 
Oxford." 

Tidings  reached  the  cathedral  that  he  was  drawing 
nigh,  but  the  tardy  earl  approached  not,  and  finally, 
by  the  king's  command,  the  solemnity  proceeded, 
"and  the  Earl  of  Derby  and  Lord  Maltravers  were 
godfathers  at  the  font,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  was  god- 
mother." Into  the  font  the  little  prince  was  put 
bodily.  There  was  no  "  sprinkling,"  he  was  baptised 
by  immersion,  at  which  moment  the  long-expected 
Earl  of  Oxford  arrived  —  too  late  for  his  office. 
When  the  young  Arthur  had  been  carried  to  his 
traverse,  chrysomed  and  clothed,  he  "was  borne  to 
the  high  altar,  and  laid  thereupon  by  his  godmother." 

After  the  queen  had  deposited  the  prince  there, 
and  while  evening  service  was  being  celebrated. 
Prince  Arthur  was  carried  on  an  earl's  right  arm, 
"and  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  confirmed  him  and  the 
Bishop  of  Salisbury  knit  the  linen  cloth  about  his 
neck." 

The  usual  costly  offerings  were  then  made  at  the 
altar,  and  spice  and  hippocras  served  round  at  St. 
Swithin's  shrine ;  which  pleasant  portion  of  the 
solemnity  being  joyously  gone  through.  Lady  Cicely 
bore  Prince  Arthur  back  to  his  cradle  in  Winchester 
Castle ;  the  king's  trumpeters  and  minstrels  welcom- 
ing the  young  Briton  with  flourishes  and  congratula- 
tory fiddlings  as  he  reached  his  nursery  door.  Better 
still  than   sound  of  cornet  or  violin,  he  was  there 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  317 

visited  by  the  king  and  queen,  "  and  had  the  blessing 
of  Almighty  God,  and  of  his  father  and  mother," 

And,  excellent  arrangement  too,  in  its  way,  several 
pipes  of  wine  were  broached  in  the  churchyard,  "  that 
every  man  might  drink  enough ; "  for  in  those  days 
the  common  folk  were  recognised  as  guests,  and 
although  the  locality  was  not  one  for  jollity,  the  king 
and  queen  furnished  them  with  a  cup  of  wine,  to  be 
"crushed  "  to  the  health  of  the  heir  apparent. 

In  Arthur's  grandmother,  Margaret,  Countess  of 
Richmond,  he  and  the  succeeding  children  of  the 
royal  family  possessed  one  of  the  most  notable  super- 
intendents of  a  nursery  that  ever  sovereign's  house 
was  blessed  with.  The  nursery  of  Prince  Arthur, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  maintained  beyond  the 
period  when  he  could  have  been  reckoned  amongst 
the  babies.  This  I  find  by  a  paragraph  in  "  Original 
Letters,"  edited  by  Ellis  (vol.  i.  2d  series),  the  date 
of  which  is  the  sixth  year  of  the  king's  reign ;  and 
which  directs  that  the  sum  of  twenty  marks  sterling, 
due  to  "our  dear  and  well-beloved  Dame  Elizabeth 
Darcy,  lady  mistress  unto  our  dearest  son,  the 
prince ; "  and  five  marks  to  the  king's  well-beloved 
Agnes  Bathe  and  Emlyn  Hobbes,  "rockers  of  our 
said  son,"  for  "wages  of  half  year  ended  at  Easter, 
last  past,"  shall  be  forthwith  paid  to  them.  Arthur, 
at  least,  could  hardly  have  stood  in  need  of  being 
rocked  to  his  sleep  when  he  was  above  five  years 
of  age ! 

His  father,  we  are  told  by  many  a  chronicler, 
hated  the  house  of  York,  and  had  no  particular 
affection  for  his  consort,  inasmuch  as  she  was  a 
member  of  that  house.     But  however  much  the  sire 


3i8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  Arthur  hated  "  York,"  there  are  numerous  circum- 
stances by  which  we  may  infer  that  he  loved  the 
lady.  Henry  was  not  demonstrative  in  anything  but 
his  antipathies ;  and  Elizabeth  of  York  had  her  full 
portion  of  what  little  warmth  there  was  in  the  heart 
of  Henry  Tudor. 

The  family  that  grew  up  around  them,  and  filled 
with  noisy  joy  the  galleries  of  Windsor  and  Westmin- 
ster, and  the  passages  at  Shene,  Croydon,  and  Green- 
wich, consisted  of  two  sons  and  five  daughters.  The 
grateful  joy  of  the  queen  at  the  birth  of  her  eldest 
son  was  testified  by  her  foundation  of  a  lady-chapel 
at  Winchester.  When  the  next  prince,  Henry,  was 
bom  at  Greenwich,  June  28,  1491,  there  was  less 
excitement  in  the  land,  if  not  less  gratitude  in  the 
mother,  for  he  was  considered  a  personage  of  inferior 
interest ;  remarkable,  indeed,  for  his  young  health 
and  strength,  but  one  who  was  not  at  all  likely  to 
make  such  a  figure  in  the  world,  or  be  at  all  of  as 
much  importance  and  influence  as  Arthur  of  Win- 
chester !  The  latter  was  then  Prince  of  Wales,  and 
heir  to  the  throne.  Henry  was  Duke  of  York,  and 
of  no  more  account  than  so  illustrious  a  "younger 
brother  "  could  well  help  being.  Arthur  was,  for  the 
time,  the  cynosure  of  court  and  people,  and  the 
jewel  of  the  household,  but  most  dear  in  the  father's 
heart.  When  sickness  sat  heavily  on  that  boy,  hearty 
were  the  king's  prayers  put  up  for  his  recovery  to 
Our  Lady  of  Walsingham.  Of  the  brief -lived  Prince 
Edmund,  it  is  only  necessary  to  record  the  name. 

The  sisters,  who  housed  with  the  young  princes, 
till  Arthur  kept  house  apart,  were  four  in  number: 
Margaret,  bom  in  1489,  who  was  afterward  Queen 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  319 

of  Scotland,  and  whose  son,  named  Arthur,  from  the 
brother  whom  she  loved,  like  him,  failed  to  reach  the 
throne  of  which  he  was  the  heir.  The  remaining 
sisters  were  Elizabeth,  who  died  young ;  Mary,  the 
"  pearl  of  England,"  as  she  was  called  by  the  French 
during  the  short  time  she  was  Queen  Consort  of 
France ;  and  who  did  not  ill  deserve  the  name  when 
she  married  her  old  lover,  Charles  Brandon,  Duke  of 
Suffolk.  The  other  daughter  was  Katherine,  the  last 
princess  who  was  born  in  the  Tower,  and  whose  birth 
cost  the  queen  her  life,  in  February,  1502-03. 

The  discipline  of  this  household  of  young  people 
was  under  a  varied  control.  The  king's  mother  was 
the  great  controller  for  a  time,  while  the  king's  wife 
was  only  as  the  eldest  child  in  the  establishment. 
Dame  Jane  Guilford  was  the  governess  ;  and  of  her 
we  know  little,  except  that  she  was  a  lively  dancer. 

But  it  is  with  Arthur  and  Henry,  who  in  succession 
bore  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wales,  that  we  have  most 
to  concern  ourselves  The  aptness  of  both  boys  for 
learning  was  remarkable ;  and  if  little  Prince  Arthur, 
under  his  tutor,  Bernard  Andreas,  an  Italian,  really 
acquired  the  proficiency  which  is  assigned  to  him  by 
chroniclers  he  probably  owed  in  part  his  early  death 
to  the  labour  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  undergo 
in  his  mere  childhood.  In  his  earliest  years,  as  we 
are  told,  the  lights  of  all  noble  virtues  began  to  shine 
in  him.  His  tutor,  Bernard  Andreas  (or  Andrew 
Bernard),  avers,  what  is  most  incredible,  that  he 
either  "  learned  without  book,"  by  rote,  or  otherwise 
"  studiously  learned  and  revolved  with  his  own  hands 
and  eyes,"  the  following  authors :  —  in  grammar, 
Garin,  Perot,  Sulpicius,  Gellius,  and  Valla ;  in  poetry, 


320       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Homer,  Virgil,  Lucan,  Ovid,  Silius,  Plautus,  and 
Terence ;  in  oratory,  the  Offices,  Epistles,  and  Para- 
doxes of  Tully,  and  the  works  of  Quintilian;  in 
history,  Thucydides,  Livy,  Caesar,  Suetonius,  Tacitus, 
Pliny,  Valerius  Maximus,  Sallust,  and  Eusebius. 
Speed,  in  quoting  this  terrific  load  for  the  brains  of 
a  child,  does  it  with  pride ;  being,  he  says,  the  more 
particular  to  signify  what  authors  were  then  thought 
fit  for  the  elementary  and  rudimental  instruction  of 
princes  !  and  to  "  lay  their  example  to  all  of  noble 
and  gentle  birth,  whose  superficial  boldness  in  books 
in  these  frothy  days  is  become  most  scandalous  and 
injurious  to  the  honour  and  use  of  learning." 

Perhaps,  after  all,  we  may  discover  in  the  words  of 
Andreas  warrant  to  conclude  that  the  learning  of 
little  Arthur  was  not  so  profound  as  would  at  first 
sight  appear.  The  boy,  however,  was  certainly  a 
good  Latinist;  and  assuredly  he  had  occasional 
healthy  relaxation  from  assuredly  heavy  labour.  He 
pitched  his  tent,  set  up  his  butts,  and  practised 
archery  in  the  fields  on  the  east  side  of  London. 
His  brother  Henry  was  there  too.  At  four  years  of 
age,  the  latter  might  have  been  seen  trotting  through 
the  city,  on  his  pony,  to  Mile  End,  to  attend  the 
tournament  there,  and  figure  at  the  butts.  At  this 
last  practice,  Henry  never  equalled  his  elder  brother, 
who  was  so  accomplished  a  toxophilite  that  the  best 
archers  of  that  day  were  called  "  true  Prince  Arthurs." 
But  the  grace  and  beauty  of  Henry  acquired  for  him 
a  distinctive  appellation  also ;  and  the  women,  in 
prophetic  spirit,  says  M.  Audin,  hailed  him  by  the 
name  of  "king." 

Such   glimpses,    however,    as    we   can    obtain   of 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  321 

Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  in  his  youth,  exhibit  him 
rather  in  the  grave  than  the  gay  aspect  of  his  age. 
He  was  but  ten  years  of  age  when  he  made  two 
visits  to  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  On  each  occa- 
sion he  lodged  with  the  president,  while  his  attendant 
lords  were  accommodated  in  the  fellows'  apartments. 
Rushes  were  provided  for  the  prince's  bedchamber ; 
his  table  was  furnished  with  jack  and  tench,  red 
wine,  claret,  and  sack ;  and  the  formality  of  present- 
ing him  and  the  courtiers  with  gloves  was  duly 
observed.  The  young  scholar  was  a  likely  youth  to 
be  held  in  high  esteem  at  Oxford ;  and  he  would 
seem  at  this  early  period  to  have  had  his  establish- 
ment apart  from  the  other  royal  children. 

Prince  Arthur  must  have  completed  his  education 
early,  if  we  may  accept  a  phrase  of  Erasmus  in  its 
literal  sense.  The  Hollander  had  been  welcomed  to 
court  by  Henry,  on  the  introduction  of  the  learned 
Lord  Mount  joy.  On  one  occasion  he  left  Mount- 
joy's  house,  in  company  with  Sir  Thomas  More,  and 
this  illustrious  couple  visited  the  "  neighbouring  coun- 
try palace,  where  the  royal  infants  were  abiding, 
Prince  Arthur  excepted,  who  had  completed  his  edu- 
cation. The  princely  children,"  continues  Erasmus, 
**were  assembled  in  the  hall,  and  were  surrounded 
by  their  household,  to  whom  Mountjoy's  servants 
added  themselves.  In  the  middle  of  the  circle  stood 
Prince  Henry,  then  only  nine  years  old,  and  he  bore 
in  his  countenance  a  look  of  high  rank,  and  an  ex- 
pression of  royalty,  yet  open  and  courteous.  On  his 
right  hand  stood  the  Princess  Margaret,  a  child  of 
eleven  years,  afterward  Queen  of  Scotland.  On  the 
other  side  was  the  Princess  Mary,  a  little  one  of  four 


322       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

years  of  age,  engaged  in  her  sports,  while  Edmund, 
an  infant,  was  held  in  his  nurse's  arms."  Audin 
states  that  Mount] oy  himself  introduced  the  philoso- 
pher to  the  prince,  **who  received  him  as  one  who 
had  an  European  reputation,  and  begged,  as  a  favour, 
to  be  allowed  to  correspond  with  him.  This  pro- 
posal from  the  young  prince,  Erasmus  accepted  with 
ill-concealed  pride.  The  child  did  not  forget  his 
promise,  and  a  year  after,  Erasmus  showed  Richard 
Pace,  with  feelings  expressive  of  sincere  joy,  a  letter 
from  the  prince,  written  in  elegant  Latin."*  The 
letter  alluded  to  merits  the  epithet  applied  to  it ;  but 
it  was  not  written  in  Henry's  tenth  year,  for  in  it 
he  makes  allusion  to  the  death  of  his  most  esteemed 
brother,  the  King  of  Castile  (Philip),  and  never,  adds 
the  prince,  "did  messenger  bring  me  more  unwel- 
come news,  since  the  death  of  my  most  beloved 
mother."  ("Nunquam  enim  post  charissimae  geni- 
tricis  mortem  nuncius  hue  venit  invisior.") 

While  the  elder  brother  of  Henry  was  alive,  there 
is  said  to  have  been  a  serious  intention  on  the  part  of 
the  king  to  educate  him  for  the  Church,  having,  as 
an  end  in  view,  the  cardinalate  and  the  archbishop- 
ric of  Canterbury.  A  recent  biographer  of  Henry 
(Froude)  treats  this  as  an  absurd  idea  originating  in 
the  foolish  imagination  of  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury, 
who  asserts  that  much  in  his  history.  But  other 
writers  agree  with  Lord  Herbert,  and,  considering 
the  character  of  Henry  VH.,  his  parsimony,  his  read- 
iness to  provide  for  his  son  at  the  expense  of  the 
Church,  and  the  profit  that  might  result  to  him  from 
having  a  champion  in  a  son  who  might  be  an  ecclesi- 

*  Ers&mi  Epist.,  451,  pars  u. 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  323 

astical  prince,  the  circumstance  is  divested  of  improb- 
ability. In  this  dream  of  the  father,  the  papal  tiara 
itself  may  have  occupied  a  dazzling  position.  It  once 
had  temptations  to  Maximilian  for  himself,  though 
that  emperor  may  have  been  mad  when  he  informed 
his  daughter  that  he  entertained  serious  thoughts  of 
attempting  to  procure  his  election  to  the  papal  chair. 
If  a  Kaiser  dreamed  of  the  tiara  for  his  own  brow,  — 
or  even  if  he  did  not,  —  might  not  such  a  king  as 
Henry  VII.  covet  a  cardinal-princedom  in  the  Church 
and  the  primacy  of  England  for  his  younger  son } 
The  brother  of  King  Stephen  was  only  Bishop  of 
Winchester. 

No  doubt  the  profound  theological  knowledge  and 
attainments  of  Prince  Henry  were  the  ripe  fruits  of 
a  maturer  study;  but  his  early  stages  of  learning 
and  many  of  his  early  accomplishments  had  an  eccle- 
siastical character  about  them.  That  character  may 
have  been  imparted  to  them  by  one  of  the  tutors 
whom  King  Henry  assigned  to  his  boys  —  a  man 
who  commenced  with  Prince  Arthur  alone,  but  who 
was  also  the  instructor  of  other  of  the  royal  children. 

A  greater  man  than  Bernard  Andreas  shared  with 
him  the  care  of  Prince  Arthur's  education  and  health, 
and  this  care  could  not  have  been  confided  to  a  more 
accomplished  scholar  or  a  more  skilful  physician  than 
Bernard's  colleague.  The  individual  who  undertook 
the  task  of  making  the  mind  and  body  of  Prince 
Arthur  grow  in  wholesome  vigour  was  Thomas  Lin- 
acre,  a  native  of  Kent,  though  of  a  Derbyshire  fam- 
ily. Two  years  previous  to  Prince  Arthur's  birth  he 
was  a  fellow  of  Oxford,  already  of  repute  for  his 
learning,  although  then  only  in  his  four  and  twen- 


324       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

tieth  year.  Subsequently,  he  travelled,  and  studied 
in  Italy,  held  companionship  with  Politian,  and  was 
highly  esteemed  at  the  court  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici. 
In  Italy  he  perfected  himself  in  the  knowledge  of 
the  Greek  language,  of  the  science  of  medicine,  and 
natural  philosophy.  On  his  return  to  England,  he 
lectured  on  physic,  and  taught  the  Greek  language 
at  Oxford ;  and  became  of  such  renown  for  his  schol- 
arship and  medical  science  that  Henry  VII.  sent  for 
him  to  court,  and  appointed  him  to  the  important 
offices  I  have  named  above. 

Linacre,  however,  seems  to  have  been  concerned 
in  the  education  of  some  of  the  other  branches  of 
the  royal  family.  He  translated  "  Proclus,  on  the 
Sphere,"  and  dedicated  it  to  his  pupil,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  ;  but  he  also  composed  (in  English)  a  breviary 
of  the  rudiments  of  Latin  grammar  for  the  use  of 
the  little  Princess  Mary  —  a  book  so  approved  by 
Buchanan  that  he  translated  it  into  Latin,  with  a 
strange  idea  of  making  it  more  generally  useful.  He 
is  not  stated  to  have  been  officially  engaged  with 
Arthur's  brother,  either  when  the  latter  was  Duke 
of  York  or  Prince  of  Wales.  Nevertheless,  some  of 
the  accomplishments  which  most  distinguished  Henry 
of  Greenwich  may,  perhaps,  be  traced  to  Thomas 
Linacre  of  Knight  Rider  Street.  If  Henry  owed  his 
musical  taste  and  skill,  as  he  undoubtedly  did,  to  the 
direction  and  example  of  his  mother,  he  must  have 
been  indebted  to  Linacre  for  several  qualities  which 
they  held  in  common.  Henry,  it  is  well  known,  was 
no  mean  physician,  and  his  study  of  theology  was  a 
"dear  delight"  to  him,  even  at  an  early  age;  at  a 
later  period,  he  manifested  its  profundity  also.     Now 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  325 

Linacre  was  constantly  at  court  —  at  Westminster, 
Shene,  or  Croydon,  —  and  distinguished  as  he  was, 
there  and  abroad,  as  a  philologist,  he  was  also  famed 
for  his  medical  proficiency,  and  remarkable  for  the 
zeal  with  which  he  pursued  his  theological  studies, 
—  a  zeal  which,  subsequently,  carried  him  into  the 
Church.  Was  it  not  rather  owing  to  Linacre' s  ex- 
ample than  to  the  king's  wish  to  make  of  the  Duke 
of  York  a  churchman,  archbishop,  —  Pope,  perhaps,  — 
that  Henry  became  so  partial  to,  nay,  so  perfect  in, 
the  knowledge  and  practice  of  physic,  and  so  sharp  a 
controversialist  —  so  perilous  to  all  adversaries  who 
ventured  to  break  a  lance  with  him  in  a  theological 
quarrel  ?  Then  his  Latin,  even  when  a  boy,  was  so 
pure  and  so  elegant  that  it  excited  the  admiration 
of  Erasmus ;  the  prince's  subsequent  correspondence 
with  whom  led  him  into  a  happy  imitation  of  the 
Hollander's  style.  This  fact  shows  his  "  impression- 
ability," owing  to  which,  added  to  better  natural  qual- 
ifications, he  received  from  Linacre  that  purity  and 
elegance,  both  "severe"  of  their  kind,  which  perhaps 
distinguished  the  Latin  of  the  renowned  physician 
above  that  of  all  his  contemporaries.  It  is  certain 
that  Henry  of  Greenwich  held  Linacre  in  no  ordi- 
nary esteem ;  and  when  he  changed  the  silver  rod 
of  Prince  of  Wales  for  that  of  the  golden  sceptre  of 
Britain,  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to  appoint  Linacre 
physician  in  ordinary  to  the  king. 

But  ere  this  occurred  there  was  another  Prince  of 
Wales  to  enjoy  his  brief  bachelor  dignity,  scholarship, 
and  relaxation,  and  his  still  briefer  married  time  with 
a  bride  from  Spain,  who  was  not  wooed  and  won 
under  a  period  of  seven  years ;  the  political  arrange- 


326       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ments  commencing  when  Prince  Arthur  was  eight 
years  of  age,  and  the  marriage  being  celebrated  when 
he  was  sixteen. 

For  no  two  crafty  sires  in  a  comedy  ever  acted  sin- 
cerity and  meant  the  reverse  more  strikingly  than 
Henry  of  England  and  Ferdinand  of  Spain  did  on 
this  occasion.  Each  watched  the  course  and  prospect 
of  the  other's  fortunes ;  each  dallied  and  deferred,  or 
turned  to  write  protocols,  as  long  as  the  "  other  side  " 
failed  to  present  the  appearances  of  an  advantageous 
match,  and  it  was  only  when  Henry's  throne  seemed 
unassailable,  and  the  crown  of  Ferdinand  was  radiant 
with  glory,  that  the  two  crafty  fathers  came  to  an 
agreement,  and  the  marriage  was  decided  on  of 
Arthur  of  Winchester  and  Katharine  of  Arragon. 

At  the  time  of  this  decision  the  Prince  of  Wales 
was  a  graceful  boy,  brimful  of  Latin  and  other  learn- 
ing, ardent  in  feeling,  but  having  nothing  of  the 
vigour  of  his  brother,  Henry.  Katharine,  who  was 
about  a  year  older  than  Arthur,  —  a  mature  age  for 
a  daughter  of  Spain,  —  was  a  lively  girl,  fond  of  danc- 
ing, and,  without  being  unattractive,  was  not  re- 
markable for  beauty.  The  prince  had,  for  several 
years  previously,  wooed  his'bride  by  letter,  and  in  very 
choice  Latin,  —  a  stiff  and  pedantic  course,  but  such 
was  the  course  prescribed,  —  and  here  is  a  sample  of 
the  young  wooer's  style,  done  into  English  : 

"  Most  illustrious  and  most  excellent  lady,  my 
dearest  spouse,  I  wish  you  very  much  health,  with 
my  hearty  commendation.  I  have  read  the  most 
sweet  letters  of  your  Highness,  lately  given  to  me, 
from  which  I  have  easily  perceived  your  most  entire 
love  to  me.     Truly,  then,  your  letters,   traced   by 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  327 

your  own  hand,  have  so  delighted  me,  and  have  ren- 
dered me  so  cheerful  and  jocund,  that  I  fancied  I 
beheld  your  Highness,  and  conversed  with  and  em- 
braced my  dearest  wife.  I  cannot  tell  you  what 
earnest  desire  I  feel  to  see  your  Highness,  and  how 
vexatious  to  me  is  this  procrastination  about  your 
coming.  I  owe  eternal  thanks  to  your  Excellence, 
that  you  so  lovingly  correspond  to  this  my  so  ardent 
love.  Let  it  continue,  I  entreat,  as  it  has  begun,  and 
like  as  I  cherish  your  sweet  remembrance,  night  and 
day,  so  do  you  preserve  my  name  ever  fond  in  your 
breast,  and  let  your  coming  to  me  be  hastened,  that 
instead  of  being  absent  we  may  be  present  with  each 
other,  and  the  love  conceived  between  us,  and  the 
wished-for  joys  may  reap  their  proper  fruit. 

*•  Moreover,  I  have  done  as  your  illustrious  High- 
ness enjoined  me,  that  is  to  say,  in  commending  you 
to  the  most  serene  lord  and  lady,  the  king  and 
queen,  my  parents,  and  in  declaring  your  filial  regard 
toward  them,  which  to  them  was  most  pleasing  to 
hear,  especially  from  my  lips.  I  also  beseech  your 
Highness  that  it  may  please  you  to  exercise  a  similar 
good  office  for  me,  and  to  commend  me  with  hearty 
good-will  to  my  most  serene  lord  and  lady,  your 
parents,  for  I  greatly  venerate,  value,  and  esteem 
them,  even  as  though  they  were  my  own  ;  and  wish 
them  all  happiness  and  prosperity. 

"  May  your  Highness  be  ever  fortunate  and  happy, 
and  be  kept  safe  and  joyful,  and  let  me  know  it  often 
and  speedily  by  your  letters,  which  will  be  to  me 
most  joyous.  From  our  Castle  of  Ludlow,  3d  nones 
of  October  (15th),  1499.  Your  Highness's  most  lov- 
ing spouse,  Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  Duke  of  Corn- 


328       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

wall,  etc.,  eldest  son  of  the  king."  —  It  is  addressed 
"To  the  Most  Illustrious  and  Excellent  Princess,  the 
Lady  Catherine,  Princess  of  Wales,  Duchess  of  Com- 
wall,  etc.,  my  most  entirely  and  beloved  spouse." 

As  a  sample  of  the  youthful  ardour  of  this  Prince 
of  Wales,  the  above  may  suffice.  There  are  other 
letters  in  the  Egerton  Collection  of  Manuscripts, 
but  these  are  of  a  similar  character,  and  in  the  same 
correct  Latin.  In  them,  Arthur  informs  Katharine 
that  he  is  delighted  to  discover  in  her  own  epistles 
her  love  toward  him.  His  impatience  to  behold  her 
is  indescribable.  He  asks  her  to  keep  his  name  in 
her  memory  and  bosom,  expresses  the  joy  of  his 
parents  at  hearing  through  him  the  messages  of  affec- 
tion which  she  transmits  to  them,  and  prays  that  she 
will  reply  quickly  to  his  inquiries. 

Later,  the  boy-lover  informs  his  lady  of  the  delight 
with  which  he  has  received  her  assurance  of  love  and 
duty  —  the  proofs  of  her  good-will ;  next  to  the 
ecstasy  of  beholding  her  is  that  of  seeing  a  letter 
written  by  her  own  hand.  Her  love  for  him  is  be- 
yond his  merits,  however  much  he  may  desire  to  be 
the  object  of  so  much  affection.  He  is  anxious  to  do 
all  that  lover  can  do  for  her  honour  and  service,  and 
he  prays  her  sincerely  to  be  sure  to  let  him  hear  from 
her,  full  assurances  of  her  health  and  safety  daily. 

The  marriage  contracts  which  were  to  bind  this 
youthful  couple  may  be  consulted  in  Rymer.  They 
are  remarkably  explicit  in  some  particulars,  which 
were  said,  when  Henry  married  his  brother's  widow, 
not  to  have  been  fulfilled ;  an  assertion  which  was 
made,  not  for  the  sake  of  truth,  but  to  suit  an  especial 
purpose. 


THE  BROTHER- PRINCES  OF  WALES  329 

Katharine  set  out  from  the  Alhambra,  which  she 
never  again  beheld,  on  the  21st  of  May,  1501,  but 
she  did  not  reach  Plymouth  —  storm-tossed  as  all 
royal  brides  have  been  on  their  way  hither  to  their 
home  —  till  the  2d  of  October.  Prince  Arthur  was 
then  in  Wales,  but  he  made  such  speed  southward  as 
the  roads  and  the  season  would  admit,  and  on  the 
5th  of  November,  as  the  bride  was  near  East  Hamp- 
stead  on  her  way  to  the  metropolis,  he  passed  within 
sight  of  Katharine,  who  thus  pleasantly  "encountered 
the  pure  and  proper  presence  of  Prince  Arthur,  who 
had  set  out  to  salute  his  sage  father."  On  his  way 
he  would  seem  to  have  visited  Oxford  University,  for 
the  third  and  last  time.  He  was  kindly  received  at 
Magdalen  College,  with  speeches ;  and  afterward 
visiting  other  colleges,  was  received  with  the  same 
ceremony. 

On  the  6th  of  November,  at  Dagmersfield,  after  a 
world  of  affected  coyness  and  reluctance,  on  the  part 
of  Katharine*s  noble  and  ecclesiastical  escort,  King 
Henry  led  Prince  Arthur  to  his  bride,  whom  he  saw 
in  her  chamber  for  the  first  time.  Neither  could 
speak  the  native  language  of  the  other ;  and  accord- 
ingly recourse  was  had  to  Latin,  and,  with  the  aid 
of  the  bishops  present,  the  young  people  said  hand- 
some things  of  each  other,  and  progressed  so  favour- 
ably that  the  king  made  them,  then  and  there,  plight 
their  mutual  troth.  A  supper  followed  the  ceremony, 
after  which  the  lively  Infanta  fell  to  dancing  with 
her  ladies.  The  bridegroom  appears  to  have  lacked 
courage  to  dance  with  her ;  but,  to  manifest  his  con- 
tent, he  took  out  his  sister's  governess,  and  went 
through  a  measure  with  sprightly  Lady  Guilford. 


330       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

It  was  the  I2th  of  November  before  the  Spanish 
princess  entered  London,  when  the  city  made  for 
her  a  curious  demonstration  of  welcome. 

"The  mayor,  aldermen,  sheriffs,  with  other  of  the 
conservators,  councillors,  and  aiders  of  the  city  of 
London,  so  orderly  with  good  policy  had  provided 
the  said  city,  that  the  fellowship  of  every  craft  should, 
*all  things  laid  aparte,'  in  the  several  liveries  and 
bodies  of  their  names,  be  present  at  the  coming  of 
this  most  excellent  princess.  And  for  the  said  great 
number  of  crafts  were  barriers  made  on  every  side 
of  the  way,  from  the  middle  of  Gracechurch  Street 
unto  the  entering  of  the  churchyard  of  Paul's,  that 
they  might,  from  the  comers  and  common  people, 
have  their  space  and  ease,  and  also  be  seen."  In 
other  words,  they  wished  to  enjoy  comfortable  in- 
spection of  the  new  Princess  of  Wales  ;  and  they 
desired  to  afford  her  a  competent  idea  of  the  grandeur 
and  importance  of  London  aldermen. 

For  a  November  show,  the  affair  was  highly  suc- 
cessful, but  Katharine  must  have  been  well  content 
to  find  herself,  at  last,  quietly  within  the  bishop's 
palace,  on  the  eve  of  her  marriage  with  a  prince  who 
was  lodging  hard-by  at  the  "  Dean  of  Paul's." 

The  night  previous  to  the  marriage,  —  in  order 
that  the  prince  "  should  be  most  in  a  readiness,"  —  he 
was  lodged  at  the  "  Dean  of  Paul's  place,"  whence, 
on  the  wedding  morning,  he  made  his  entry  at  "  the 
south  door,  next  westward  to  our  Lady  of  Grace,  in 
the  body  of  the  church."  He  had  a  gallant  company 
about  him,  and  so  had  the  bride,  who  was  not  only 
accompanied  by  a  bevy  of  maids,  but  by  '*a  great 
estate  of  bachelors  that  have  not  been  married,"  who 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  331 

were  assigned  by  the  king  to  lead  her  to  the  altar. 
The  young  Duke  of  York,  —  who  was  to  be  her 
second  husband,  —  led  her  from  the  palace  to  the 
cathedral. 

Now,  this  illustrious  couple  were  married  by  banns, 
being  publicly  **  asked  "  as  they  stood  waiting  on  an 
elevated  stage.  And  then,  in  a  sort  of  solemn  sport, 
the  banns  were  denied.  A  doctor  of  laws,  previously 
appointed,  brought  forward  objections  openly  against 
the  said  banns  and  marriage,  alleging  that  the  said 
marriage  could  not  be  lawful,  exhibiting  in  support 
of  his  allegation  various  reasons  supposed  to  be 
grounded  in  the  law  of  Christ's  church.  To  this 
opposition  another  "famous  doctor"  made  a  con- 
futing reply ;  and  then  the  master  of  the  rolls 
gravely  examined  the  arguments,  and  ended  by  pro- 
nouncing the  marriage  good  and  effectual  in  the  law 
of  Christ's  church.  This  dialogue  and  replication 
was  held  "  for  the  more  honour  of  the  said  marriage, 
although  there  be  no  cause  of  substance  nor  in  effect 
why  the  same  ought  to  be  done."  So  runs  the  text 
of  the  "Traduction  and  Marriage  of  the  Princess, 
etc.,"  printed  by  Caxton's  friend  and  successor, 
Richard  Pynson. 

One  paragraph  in  this  admirably  printed  pamphlet 
would  seem  to  authorise  the  bride  and  bridegroom  to 
withdraw  for  awhile,  should  they  grow  weary  of  the 
length  of  the  service  in  which  the  especial  celebra- 
tion of  their  marriage  was  not  concerned.  On  this 
account  provision  was  made  that  they  might  have 
"always  some  place  secretly  to  resort  to  for  such 
casualty  as  may  fall  during  the  high  mass ;  "  but  here 
a  page  has  been  lost  from  the  old  pamphlet   now 


332       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

before  me,  and  further  enlightenment  on  this  extra 
portion  of  the  august  ceremony  is  not  to  be  procured. 

It  dazzles  the  eyes  of  the  mind  only  to  read  of  all 
the  "bravery,"  as  it  is  called,  which  illustrated  this 
wedding,  —  on  the  going  to  the  cathedral,  within  the 
edifice,  and  after  the  ceremonial.  And  when  it  has 
been  read,  the  mind  fails  to  realise  anything  but  a 
glittering  confusion  of  all  classes  of  living  creatures, 
and  all  sorts  of  devices,  and  of  every  phase  of  bril- 
liancy, gaiety,  and  jollity  which  the  city  of  London 
could  assume  at  such  a  season  of  the  year.  But,  as 
Bacon  and  other  historians  following  him  remark, 
"  The  vulgar  annals  can  tell  you  the  splendour  and 
glory  thereof,  in  apparel,  jewels,  pageants,  guests, 
and  other  princely  compliments,  the  only  weighty 
business  of  many  weaker  brains."  Let  it  suffice, 
therefore,  to  say  that  it  took  a  complement  of  nine- 
teen bishops  and  abbots,  with  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  completing  and  heading  the  score,  to 
make  of  the  Princess  Katharine  and  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  —  both  of  them  attired  in  white,  —  "  man 
and  wife." 

Feasting  and  music  followed  at  the  episcopal  resi- 
dence, where  the  guests  admired  a  bride  who  brought 
with  her  a  dowry  of  two  hundred  thousand  gold 
crowns,  half  in  money,  and  the  remainder  in  prom- 
ises ;  all  which  the  king  took  into  his  own  keeping. 
The  bride  was  endowed,  in  return,  with  a  third  of 
her  husband's  revenue  arising  from  his  possessions  in 
Wales,  Cornwall,  and  Chester.  The  guests  augured 
well,  too,  of  this  match ;  and,  indeed,  on  that  morn- 
ing a  player,  representing  the  old  star-learned  King 
Alphonso,  had  appeared  before  the  royal  pair,  and 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  333 

saluting  them  as  Arcturus  and  Hesperus,  promised 
them  long  connubial  felicity,  and  a  bright  offspring ; 
but,  —  as  a  chronicler  remarks,  —  "  It  is  not  good 
to  tell  fortunes  from  the  stars."  The  fortunes  prom- 
ised never  came  to  pass ;  but  had  there  really  been 
any  "  cunning  people "  present  that  day,  they  might 
have  recognised  a  foreshadowing  of  the  future  in  a 
singular  circumstance.  When  the  ceremony  was 
concluded,  and  the  bridal  procession  was  about  to 
return  to  the  Bishop  of  London's  palace,  from  which 
it  had  issued  in  the  morning,  it  was  not  the  bride- 
groom who  led  forth  the  bride,  but  young  Henry, 
Duke  of  York,  who  stepped  forward  and  led  her 
forth  —  as  if  she  were  already  the  wife  which  she 
afterward  became.  The  records  do  not  say  in  what 
humour  he  was  followed  by  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

But  common  fame  has  many  a  tale  to  tell  of  after- 
ceremonies  and  frolics.  Some  of  these  tales  were 
evidently  framed,  at  a  later  period,  to  accommodate 
the  views  of  those  who  furthered  the  second  marriage 
of  Katharine  with  the  succeeding  Prince  of  Wales. 
Of  another  story,  referring  to  the  day  after  the  wed- 
ding, Eachard  says  of  it,  that  "though  light  and 
disagreeable  to  the  majesty  of  history,  it  cannot  be 
omitted."  Other  annalists  narrate  the  story  without 
making  a  comment.  I  will  neither  make  comment 
nor  narrate  story,  —  it  would  only  serve  to  show  that 
Arthur  was  an  impudent,  boasting  young  fellow,  who 
had  the  bad  taste  to  speak  coarsely  of  his  Spanish 
bride,  in  order  to  excite  a  senseless  laugh  among  his 
attendants.  Eachard  accepts  the  narrative  as  true ; 
but  a  better  opinion  of  Arthur  prevents  me  from 
arriving  at  the  same  conclusion.     If  I  could  do  so, 


334       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

I  might  agree  with  Bacon,  who,  on  this  point,  does 
not  agree  with  himself,  nor  with  fact,  and  who  says 
that  "his  father's  manner  of  education  did  cast  no 
great  lustre  upon  his  children." 

The  entertainments  in  honour  of  this  rare  marriage 
lasted  a  whole  weary  fortnight,  Sundays  included, 
after  mass,  when  the  revellers  renewed  their  revel 
with  fresh  zest.  These  entertainments  included 
masques,  and  banquets,  and  queer  devices,  and  tour- 
naments in  which  the  aspiring  knights  thwacked  one 
another  with  right  hearty  good-will.  Some  of  the 
fun  seems  to  have  been  of  a  very  slow  and  solemn 
nature,  and  as  Katharine  and  the  Prince  of  Wales 
were  present  at  every  spectacle  and  exhibition,  they 
must  have  experienced  a  sensible  relief  when  a  wet  or 
windy  day  marred  the  revelry  and  gave  them  tem- 
porary repose.  On  some  occasions  they,  of  course, 
were  actors  as  well  as  spectators ;  as,  for  instance, 
in  Westminster  Hall,  where  they  descended  from 
their  elevated  seats,  and  danced  "  bass  dances  "  in 
presence  of  the  king  and  queen  and  the  illustrious  and 
delighted  assembly.  They  danced  not  together  on 
these  occasions,  nor  in  the  same  dance ;  and  perhaps 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was  weary,  or  affected  a  languor, 
for  when  his  young  brother  Henry  succeeded  him, 
leading  his  sister  Margaret  by  the  hand,  he  went 
at  his  work  or  sport  with  such  vigour,  that,  flinging 
off  his  robe,  he  danced  away  in  his  jacket,  and 
exhibited  a  vivacity  that  excited  the  laughter  and 
applause  of  that  pleasure-stricken  assembly.  Thus 
Henry  carried  off  the  bride  at  the  wedding,  and  now 
carried  off  the  applause  at  the  festival.  He  already 
seemed  to  take  what  of  right  belonged  to  Prince 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  335 

Arthur,  —  precedence  on  this  great  solemnity  and 
riot. 

At  the  end  of  a  fortnight  the  Prince  of  Wales,  with 
his  bride,  returned  to  Ludlow  Castle,  where  he  was 
residing  on  the  arrival  of  Katharine  in  England.  He 
went  thither,  thence  to  govern  Wales  ;  and  brief  as 
his  government  endured,  there  are  still  documents 
extant  showing  he  was  not  altogether  given  to  idle 
dalliance  there,  and  bearing  his  seal,  which  carries  on 
the  obverse  the  triple  lions  on  a  shield,  surmounted 
by  a  cap  of  maintenance,  and  having  for  supporters  a 
single  lion  holding  the  symbol  feather,  with  the  motto 
Ich  Dien.  On  the  reverse,  the  prince  himself  is 
seen,  armed,  mounted,  grasping  a  sword  in  his  out- 
stretched hand ;  and  on  his  left  arm  a  shield  charged 
with  the  roses  of  England.  On  his  horse's  head  are 
the  "  feathers  ;  "  on  his  own  helmet,  a  lion,  and  the 
background  of  the  whole  is  diapered  with  feathers 
and  with  roses. 

It  scarcely  need  be  said  that  this  young  and  loving 
couple  were  not  entrusted  alone  in  Ludlow  Castle  to 
rule  themselves  or  the  principality.  A  council  took 
from  them  all  responsibility.  It  consisted  of  Sir 
Richard  Pole,  the  prince's  kinsman,  as  great  chamber- 
lain ;  Sir  Henry  Vernon,  Sir  Richard  Crofts,  Sir 
David  Phillips,  Sir  William  Uvedale,  Sir  Thomas 
Englefield,  Sir  Peter  Newton,  Sir  John  Walliston, 
Sir  Henry  Morton,  and  Doctor  William  Smith. 

This  last  gentleman  had  the  most  difficult  mission 
and  the  greatest  amount  of  responsibility,  for  to  him 
(and  our  Lady  of  Walsingham)  was  confided  the  over- 
sight of  the  precious  health  of  him  who  was  to  be 
another  Arthur,  King  of  Britain,  and  whose  Guinevere 


336       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  wiser  than  that  majestic  and  loving  sinner  of 
old. 

When  the  gates  of  Ludlow  Castle  closed  on  this 
princely  young  pair,  they  seemed  to  shut  out  all  man- 
kind from  any  knowledge  of  passing  events  there. 
The  traditions  of  the  locality  preserve  the  memories 
of  the  youthful  heads  of  a  great  household,  handing 
them  down  to  after  ages  as  winning  popularity, 
although  in  seclusion,  and  attracting  congratulations 
and  sympathy  during  the  long  honeymoon,  but  the 
brief  married  life  of  a  few  months  in  extent,  which 
they  passed  here  together,  divided  from  the  outer 
world.  Some  state,  too,  they  kept,  and  their  court 
was  that  of  a  king  and  queen,  but  on  a  miniature 
scale ;  and  some  occupation  was  found  for  the  prince, 
who,  says  Lingard,  "amidst  his  vassals,  was  in- 
structed by  his  council  in  the  rudiments  of  gov- 
ernment." 

Truly  he  was  the  hope  and  joy  of  the  nation ;  and 
his  father  loved  him,  probably,  better  than  any  other 
living  being  upon  earth.  But  that  father  had  put  to 
death  the  young  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  descendant  of 
the  Duke  of  Clarence,  and  the  last  of  the  Plantag- 
enets.  The  young  earl's  crime  was  his  nearness  to 
the  throne,  and  after  a  sad  captivity  he  had  been 
judicially  murdered.  It  was  said,  in  part  justification 
of  the  act,  that  King  Ferdinand  had  refused  to  con- 
sent to  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  Katharine  with 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  long  as  so  near  a  claimant  of 
the  house  of  York  was  alive.  Katharine  herself  must 
have  been  aware  of  this  report,  for  she  remarked, 
subsequently,  that  small  was  her  right  to  expect  hap- 
piness from  her  marriage  with  the  family  of  Tudor,  if 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  337 

it  had  been  purchased  at  the  price  of  innocent  blood. 
For  the  shedding  of  that  blood  retribution  fell  upon 
the  King  of  England.  Whether  Arthur  was  deUcate, 
as  some  say,  or  robust,  as  is  asserted  by  others, 
he  suddenly  fell  ill,  and  unexpectedly  died  on  the  2d 
of  April,  1502,  not  having  been  then  full  five  months 
married. 

A  few  days  subsequently,  the  king's  confessor, 
deputed  by  the  Privy  Council,  entered  the  royal  cham- 
ber at  Greenwich,  early  in  the  morning.  To  the 
inquiring  look  of  the  king,  who  was  then  alone, 
he  answered  with  a  maxim  in  Latin,  implying  that  if 
we  accept  benefits  from  the  hands  of  God,  we  are 
bound  to  receive  affliction  also,  with  submission  ;  and 
then  he  informed  the  king  of  the  decease  of  his  elder 
and  best-loved  son.  Henry  VII.  straightway  sent 
for  the  queen,  that  they  might  endure  this  affliction 
the  better  together.  When  Elizabeth  of  York  came 
and  saw  him  oppressed  with  sorrow,  she  "  besought 
his  Grace  that  he  would  first,  after  God,  remember 
the  weal  of  his  own  noble  person,  the  comfort  of  his 
realm,  and  of  her.  She  then  said  that  my  lady  his 
mother  had  never  no  more  children  but  him  only^ 
and  that  God  by  his  grace  had  ever  preserved  him, 
and  brought  him  where  he  was.  Over  that,  how  that 
God  had  left  him  a  fair  prince,  two  fair  princesses, 
and  that  God  is  where  he  was,  and  we  are  both  young 
enough ;  and  that  the  prudence  and  wisdom  of  his 
Grace  sprung  over  all  Christendom,  so  that  it  should 
please  him  to  take  this  according  thereunto."  **  Then 
the  king  thanked  her  of  her  good  comfort.  After 
that  she  was  departed  and  come  to  her  own  chamber, 
natural  and  motherly  remembrance  of  the  great  loss 


338        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

smote  her  so  sorrowful  to  the  heart,  that  those  that 
were  about  her  were  fain  to  send  for  the  king  to 
comfort  her.  Then  his  Grace,  in  true,  gentle,  and 
faithful  love,  in  good  haste  came,  and  relieved  her, 
and  showed  how  wise  counsel  she  had  given  him 
before ;  and  he,  for  his  part,  would  thank  God  for 
his  son,  and  would  she  should  do  in  like  wise."  ' 

In  other  guise  did  the  young  prince  leave  his  cas- 
tle of  Ludlow  than  the  gay  one  in  which  he  had 
entered  it,  five  months  before.  His  last  "state" 
there  was  that  in  which  his  cered  and  chested  body 
lay,  with  his  alms-folk  around  it,  bearing  torches 
night  and  day.  In  the  afternoon  of  St.  George's 
Day,  the  23d  of  April,  the  corpse  was  carried  one 
stage  toward  Worcester  Cathedral,  —  to  Ludlow 
parish  church,  —  the  prince's  banner  before  it,  and 
preceding  and  following,  a  crowd  of  ecclesiastical 
and  secular  dignitaries  —  among  them  "two  Span- 
iards of  the  best  degree,  belonging  to  the  princess." 
Deposited  in  the  church,  an  officer-at-arms  demanded 
aloud  "For  Prince  Arthur's  soul  and  all  Christian 
souls,  Pater  Noster."  After  gorgeous  service,  the 
dead  was  left  under  "goodly  watch"  for  the  night, 
and  on  the  morrow  there  was  more  gorgeous  service 
still  —  high  mass,  sermon,  incensing,  offerings  —  and 
then  the  raising  of  the  body  to  a  car  drawn  by  six 
horses,  all  magnificently  arrayed  according  to  the 
sorrowing  splendour  of  death,  with  some  touches 
of  prudential  economy  in  the  provision  of  coverings 
of  common  material,  to  protect  the  more  costly 
trappings  of  coffin,  hearse,  and  car  against  dust  and 
foul  weather. 

'  Leland,  "  Collectanea,*'  vol.  v. 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  339 

Of  the  latter  they  had  more  than  enough  by  the 
way.  Foul  roads,  high  winds,  and  rain  beset  the  sad 
procession.  The  torches  were  extinguished,  and  in 
some  places  oxen  had  to  be  sent  for  to  aid  the  six 
horses  to  drag  the  car  through  the  ruts  and  mud. 
And  thuswise,  train,  and  nobles,  and  bishops,  and 
gentlemen  reached  Bewdley,  on  St.  Mark's  Day, 
April  25th  ;  and  placing  the  corpse  of  the  prince 
in  the  church,  "went  to  their  dinners,  for  it  was 
fasting  day,"  —  a  good  reason  for  the  course  thus 
followed ! 

Next  morning  the  same  routine  was  pursued,  until 
the  sad  but  splendid  company  approached  Worcester. 
On  the  road,  doles  of  groats  and  half-groats  were 
given  to  the  poor,  and  all  the  honours  that  loyalty 
could  devise  and  money  pay  for  were  readily  offered 
by  church,  convent,  town,  village,  prince,  and  peasant, 
as  young  Arthur  passed  on.  When  he  reached  the 
cathedral  town  of  Worcester,  the  spectacle  was  more 
imposing  than  any  the  old  city  had  before  witnessed. 
Dead  kings  had  lain  and  living  princes  lived  within 
its  walls,  but  seldom  was  young  prince  carried  to  his 
rest  with  such  an  amount  of  pomp,  such  glorious  cir- 
cumstance of  mourning,  as  marked  the  entombing  of 
the  Tudor  Prince  of  Wales. 

This  pomp  and  circumstance  were  at  their  highest, 
when  young  Lord  Gerrard,  heir  of  the  Earl  of  Kil- 
dare,  rode  into  the  cathedral  on  the  dead  prince's 
courser  and  covered  with  his  armour,  where  he  made 
offering  of  the  horse  to  the  gospeller  of  the  day,  the 
Abbot  of  Tewkesbury,  and  then  retired  on  foot, 
bearing  a  pole-axe  in  his  hand,  the  head  downwards, 
and  was  so  led  away.     To  see  the  weeping  when 


340       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

this  was  done,  and  not  have  wept  too,  would  have 
argued,  we  are  told,  a  hard  heart  in  the  spectator. 
There  were  offerings  made,  —  of  gold,  and  money, 
and  rich  palls  —  which  were  thrown  over  the  coffin, 
and  one  of  which  Worcester  has  preserved  to  this 
day.  Meanwhile,  service  was  sung  and  sermons 
preached,  and  doles  of  groats  to  the  poor  made 
throughout  and  about  the  church ;  and,  amid  a  wail 
of  mournful  melody,  the  princely  corpse  was  lowered 
to  its  grave,  "with  weeping  and  sore  lamentation." 
The  herald,  who  details  the  ceremony  at  great  length 
in  Leland,  says,  "The  orisons  were  said  by  the 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  also  sore  weeping.  He  set  the 
cross  over  the  chest,  and  cast  holy  water  and  earth 
thereon.  His  (the  prince's)  officer  of  arms,  sore 
weeping,  took  off  his  coat  of  arms  and  cast  it  along 
over  the  chest,  right  lamentably.  Then  Sir  William 
Uvedale,  comptroller  of  his  household,  sore  weeping 
and  crying,  took  the  staff  of  his  office  by  both  ends, 
and  over  his  own  head  broke  it,  and  cast  it  into  the 
grave.  In  like  wise  did  Sir  Richard  Croft,  steward 
of  his  household,  and  cast  his  staff  broken  into  the 
grave.  In  like  wise  did  the  gentlemen-ushers  their 
rods.  This  was  a  piteous  sight  to  those  who  beheld 
it.  All  things  thus  finished,"  writes  the  sorrowing 
herald,  "there  was  ordained  —  a  great  dinner,*'  which 
the  great  nobles  in  Church  and  state,  doubtless,  no 
less  needed  than  enjoyed. 

"Thus  God  have  mercy  on  good  Prince  Arthur's 
soul !  "  is  the  closing  exclamation  of  the  pious  herald 
who  wrote  the  account  of  the  spectacle  he  had  wit- 
nessed ;  and  even  a  "  Reformer "  might  have  given 
a  harmless  Amen  to  the  hearty,  if  useless,  Catholic 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  341 

formula.  It  was  a  prayer  for  a  prince  of  extraor- 
dinary hope,  the  sword  of  whose  mind  —  to  use  an 
old  phrase  —  wore  through  the  sheath  of  his  body. 
With  naturally  cheerful  inclinations,  he  was  half-worn 
out  by  study  when  he  was  a  boy,  and  then  at  the 
canonical  age  admitting  such  a  circumstance,  fifteen 
years  old,  this  poor  and  pleased  lad  was  wedded  to 
the  young  Spanish  lady,  in  her  seventeenth  year,  full 
of  energy  and  liveliness,  and  so  fond  of  dancing  that, 
at  their  first  or  second  interview,  she  so  displayed 
her  graceful  and  vivacious  skill  therein,  that  for  very 
shame  the  princely  scholar  and  lover  took  to  dancing 
too.  Then  ensued  those  magnificent  nuptials,  with 
a  fortnight  of  such  continued  dissipation  as  nuptials 
had  seldom  preceded.  Finally  came  the  five  months 
which  the  young  couple  passed  together  at  Ludlow, 
in  whose  grounds  and  castle  they  remained  em- 
bowered. But  there  the  health  of  the  young  Prince 
of  Wales  gave  way,  and  gradually  declining,  at  the 
expiration  of  the  above  period  Arthur  of  Winchester 
died  —  so  some  of  his  biographers  think  —  of  the 
plague ! 

With  this  death,  Henry,  Duke  of  York,  rose  into 
importance.  At  this  time,  when  eleven  years  of  age, 
he  was  lively  to  restlessness,  not  addicted  to  look  in 
the  face  of  people  to  whom  he  spoke,  rapidly  blinking 
his  eyes,  and  giving  bold,  sharp,  and  curt  replies. 
Yet  he  could  be,  and  often  was,  extremely  bland  and 
affable.  He  was  strikingly  handsome,  and  the  people 
were  wont  to  follow  him  in  crowds  to  the  palace. 
He,  in  return,  as  he  grew  up,  is  reported  by  the 
ballad-makers  to  have  gone  much  among  the  people 
in  disguise,  noting  their  manners  and  customs,  ob- 


342       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

serving  their  bearing  in  respect  to  the  law,  and  learn- 
ing from  them  much  instruction  not  to  be  acquired 
elsewhere. 

I  have  mentioned  the  obligations  he  was  probably 
under  to  Linacre.  He  is  also  said  to  have  had  for 
his  tutor  the  witty,  coarse,  and  sarcastic  Skelton,  the 
laureate ;  and  M.  Audin,  who  thoroughly  hates  his 
hero,  affirms  that  Empson  and  Dudley  were  the  two 
iniquitous  tutors  "  under  whose  tuition  the  Prince  of 
Wales  learned  the  art  of  oppressing  the  nation  !  "  In 
another  page  the  French  biographer  says  "  his  educa- 
tion was  entirely  clerical.  He  commenced  chanting 
at  seven,  at  ten  he  had  his  part  assigned  him  in  the 
choir  of  the  Chapel  Royal,  and  at  twelve  composed 
masses.  One  of  his  anthems  is  still  sung  at  Christ 
Church,  Oxford,  composed  while  he  was  Duke  of 
York,  —  *  O  Lord,  the  Maker  ! '  "  M.  Audin  further 
states  that  Henry  had  given  to  him  the  *'  Summa  " 
"  of  St.  Thomas,  which  was  studied  with  much  avid- 
ity in  the  sixteenth  century  ;  "  and  that,  "  like  Luther, 
Henry,  when  fatigued  with  his  studies,  used  to  amuse 
himself  by  playing  on  the  flute." 

It  has  been  said  that  half  a  year  was  allowed  to 
elapse  after  the  death  of  Arthur  before  his  brother 
was  created  Prince  of  Wales.  The  reason  assigned 
for  the  delay  being  the  possible  birth  of  an  heir  to 
the  first  prince.  This,  however,  is  incorrect.  Henry 
was  created  Prince  of  Wales  only  a  few  weeks  subse- 
quent to  Arthur's  decease. 

Mr.  Sharon  Turner  refers  to  Rymer  (xiiL  ii)  for 
the  patent  so  creating  Henry  Prince  of  Wales  on  the 
2 2d  of  June,  1 502 ;  but  the  document  thus  referred 
to  in  Rymer  simply  expresses  that  the  king  gives 


THE  BROTHER  '  PRINCES  OF  WALES  343 

on  that  day  "to  our  dearest  son  Henry,  Prince  of 
Wales,  the  office  of  guardian  and  capital  judiciary  of 
the  Forest  de  Gaultres,"  in  the  county  of  York,  with 
William,  Bishop  of  Carlisle  (Bishop  of  Durham  elect), 
for  his  deputy.  This  is  proof  enough  that  the  crea- 
tion of  Henry  dates  from  an  earlier  period. 

Soon  after  this  arose  the  question  of  his  marriage, 
resolving  itself  into  the  question  of  a  union  between 
himself  and  the  widow  of  his  brother.  The  negotia- 
tions were  cautiously  opened  by  the  father  and  craft- 
ily carried  on,  each  side  affecting  a  certain  amount  of 
pleasure,  and  both  being  desirous  not  to  appear  too 
eager  for  the  conclusion.  Ferdinand  feigned  a  desire 
that  his  daughter,  and  that  part  of  her  dowry  paid 
with  her,  should  be  returned  to  him  ;  Henry,  desirous 
of  receiving  the  portion  which  yet  remained  unpaid, 
seemed  most  to  wish  for  the  completion  of  the  mar- 
riage between  his  son  and  Katharine. 

Then  Ferdinand  expressed  much  delight  at  the 
projected  espousals  between  "so  noble  a  prince"  as 
"he  of  Wales  (Henry),  and  it  was  a  comfort  to  him,  he 
said,  that  his  daughter  Katharine  should  have  "so 
noble  a  father-in-law  as  my  brother  of  England." 
These  words  were  merely  formal,  for  the  writer's 
experience  of  Henry  VH.  as  a  father-in-law  to 
Katharine  was  in  the  utmost  degree  unsatisfactory. 
The  Spanish  nation,  it  appears,  or  a  part  of  it,  was 
as  satisfied  as  the  Spanish  king.  The  EngHsh  envoys 
there  informed  their  master  that  "  the  larger  portion 
of  the  common  people  in  Spain  are  utterly  ignorant  of 
the  existence  of  any  other  country  beside  their  own  ; " 
but  they  add  that  "  such  of  them  as  had  been  made 
partakers  of  the  erudite  information  that  there  did 


344       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

exist  other  nations  under  the  sun  greatly  rejoiced  at 
the  contract  with  England."  ^ 

Katharine  evinced  some  distaste  at  being  trans- 
ferred from  one  brother  to  another,  but  she  submitted 
herself  to  her  father's  will.  Accordingly,  on  the  25th 
of  June,  1504  (or  the  27th,  1503,  according  to  Audin), 
she  was  betrothed  to  Henry,  Prince  of  Wales,  in  the 
Bishop  of  Salisbury's  house  in  Fleet  Street,  the  bride- 
groom being  then  thirteen  years  of  age  and  the  bride 
about  nineteen. 

This  was  a  simple  formality,  but  when  Prince 
Henry  entered  on  the  canonical  age  of  puberty,  he 
was  forced' to  protest  against  the  validity  of  any  con- 
tract into  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  enter  dur- 
ing his  nonage.  This  protest  was  made  before  the 
Privy  Council  at  Richmond,  but  the  Prince  of  Wales 
did  not  himself  read  it,  nor  had  he  entered  into  it  at 
all,  but  in  obedience  to  his  father's  wish.  King 
Henry's  object  was  to  have  in  his  possession  means 
of  objecting  to  the  subsequent  fulfilment  of  the  mar- 
riage, if  such  an  objection  were  likely  to  be  profitable 
in  certain  contingent  circumstances. 

Meanwhile  Katharine,  the  widow  of  one  and  not 
yet  the  wife  of  another  Prince  of  Wales,  had  but  an 
uneasy  life  of  it  here  in  England.  Her  third  portion 
of  the  revenues  of  her  first  husband  was  not  paid  to 
her,  and  she  was  compelled  to  contract  debts  in  Lon- 
don and  elsewhere.  Her  servants,  unable  to  obtain 
their  wages,  remained  unseemly  clad.  Her  ladies 
were  as  badly  off  as  her  servants,  and  to  these  she 
had  not  a  maravedi  to  give  that  she  might  relieve 

'  Introduction  to  the  Letters  of  Catharine  of  Arragon  in  the 
"  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,"  by  M.  A.  E.  Wood. 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  34S 

their  distress.  "Each  day,"  writes  the  Princess  of 
Wales  to  her  father,  "  my  troubles  increase ;  since  I 
came  into  England  I  have  not  had  a  single  maravedi 
except  a  certain  sum  that  was  given  me  for  food,  and 
that  such  a  sum  that  it  did  not  suffice  without  my 
having  many  debts  in  London."  Instead  of  having  a 
friend  in  the  Spanish  ambassador  in  London  (Puebla)/' 
she  had  a  bitter  foe,  a  "  rogue,"  as  she  calls  him,  who 
helped  to  reduce  her  to  poverty,  deprive  her  of  her 
household,  and  force  her  into  a  humiliating  depend- 
ence upon  the  court.  Ferdinand  seems  rather  to 
have  sanctioned  the  proceedings  of  his  envoy  than 
supported  his  daughter  in  her  adversity.  She  "  will 
soon  die,"  she  writes,  after  suffering  from  ague  for 
two  months,  if  her  father  do  not  succour  her,  and 
punish  that  rogue  severely.  Ferdinand  counselled 
her  to  be  agreeable  to  the  king  in  all  things ;  but 
that  was  hard  to  compass,  for  he  demanded  the  un- 
remitted half  of  her  dowry,  depreciated  the  value  of 
jewels  and  plate  offered  in  lieu  of  cash,  and  she 
eagerly  assures  her  father  that  "money"  alone  will 
be  agreeable  to  her  father-in-law.  Wanting  this,  the 
king  had  been  positively  rude  to  her ;  he  had  refused 
to  relieve  her  distress,  affirmed  that  he  was  not  bound 
to  give  her  anything ;  that  what  he  did  furnish  was 
of  his  own  good-will,  and  that  he  would  do  nothing 
more  till  the  arrears  of  her  portion  were  paid.  Katha- 
rine intimated  that  her  royal  father  would  keep  his 
promise,  and  that  the  money  would  be  forthcoming. 
The  ungracious  king  replied  that  he  was  not  so  sure 
of  that,  and  that,  at  all  events,  it  remained  to  be  seen. 
Poor  Katharine  should  have  been  supported  in  such  a 
scene  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  but  she  makes  no  allu- 


346       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

sion  to  him,  uttering  only  complaints,  and  declaring 
that,  in  1 506,  she  lacked  means  to  procure  linen  under- 
garments, and  that  from  the  day  she  had  left  Spain 
with  her  Spanish  wardrobe  she  had  only  purchased  two 
new  dresses.  She  was  even  compelled  to  sell  her 
bracelets,  that  she  might  procure  a  black  velvet  robe, 
for  the  very  good  reason  she  gives,  "  I  was  all  but 
naked." 

One  request  made  to  her  father  is  for  a  Spanish 
confessor,  as  she  "  knew  no  English,"  and  could  not 
communicate  with  a  priest  in  the  latter  language. 
This  would  show  that  she  was  never  Linacre's  pupil, 
although  she  is  said  to  have  learned  Italian  of  him. 
The  Prince  of  Wales's  tutor  could  teach  it  skilfully, 
but  surely  if  Linacre  had  given  her  any  instruction  it 
would  have  been  in  English. 

Altogether  the  period  between  her  betrothal  and 
her  marriage  was  one  of  suffering,  during  which, 
however,  no  thought  of  either  of  the  Princes  of  Wales 
seems  to  have  entered  her  mind.  It  is  in  such  suffer- 
ings that  royalty  sometimes  is  wounded ;  and  ^ch 
was  the  case  here,  for  Katharine  occasionally  wrote, 
to  please  her  father-in-law,  sentiments  entirely  con- 
trary to  those  she  really  entertained.  The  latter  she 
occasionally  explained  to  her  father,  in  cipher,  but 
even  these  despatches  were  often  intercepted.  The 
most  striking  instance  of  this  occurred  when  the 
widowed  King  Henry  sought  to  re-marry  with  Joanna, 
the  sister  of  Katharine,  and  it  was  the  interest  of 
Ferdinand  not  to  refuse,  nor  yet  to  accept  such  a 
proposal. 

Meanwhile  Henry,  of  whom  the  affianced  lady 
makes  no  more  mention  in  her  letters  than  she  does 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  347 

of  her  dead  lord,  Arthur,  maintained  a  quiet  and  well- 
regulated  life,  obtaining  thereby  the  admiration  and 
affection  of  his  contemporaries,  and  enjoying  the 
particular  esteem  of  scholars  and  philosophers. 

"  When  the  king  was  but  a  lad,  he  dared  to  chal- 
lenge even  Erasmus  to  a  Latin  letter  written  in  his 
own  hand.  Erasmus  gave  me  this  to  read  at  Ferrara. 
He  always  carried  it  about  him  wherever  he  went,  in 
a  little  box,  as  a  hidden  treasure."  Such  is  the  story 
told  by  Dean  Pace,  of  St.  Paul's,  in  1517.  Further, 
Erasmus  stated  to  Servatius,  "  When  I  was  in  Italy, 
the  king,  a  little  before  his  father's  death,  sent  me, 
in  his  own  writing,  literas  amantissimasr  Sharon 
Turner  points  to  the  fact  that  Henry  had  all  the 
more  leisure  for  literature  while  Arthur  was  alive, 
because  he  was  not  the  next  heir  to  the  throne, 
and  was  really  destined  for  the  Church.  When 
he  became  Prince  of  Wales,  although  so  young 
when  such  a  change  in  his  prospects  occurred,  his 
intellectual  tastes  were  formed  ;  these  he  never  ceased 
to  cultivate,  and  the  example  was  influential  with  the 
people. 

Few  witnesses  to  the  early  excellence  of  Henry's 
character  have  given  more  favourable  testimony  than 
Sir  Thomas  Chaloner,  who  was  himself  a  gallant 
soldier,  an  able  statesman,  a  learned  writer,  and 
subsequently  English  ambassador  in  the  Netherlands. 
His  Latin  poetical  works  were  collected  by  Lord 
Burleigh,  and  published  by  his  order, — the  noble 
editor  prefixing  to  them  a  Latin  poem  of  his  own. 
The  good  old  knight  vouches  for  the  precocity  of 
the  prince  in  wit,  dignity,  and  virtue  —  in  sounding 
hexameters  — 


348       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

"  Hie  igitur,  longo  Regum  de  sanguine  cretus 
Pene  puer,  didicit  sceptris  succedere  avitis, 
Jam  juvenis,  jam  Rex,  jam  se  praestantior  ipso, 
Si  spectes  animi  sublimis  pignora  docto 
Quern  Musae  fovere  sinu,  Charitesque  lepore 
Dotarunt,  gratae  multa  gravitate  loquelae." 

The  personal  beauty  and  majesty  of  the  prince  are 
thus  illustrated : 

"  Vicerat  ille  omnes  tunc  pulchros  pulchrior  umis, 
Tanta  fuit  sacrae  Majestas  regia  formae." 

The  prince's  mind,  says  Sir  Thomas,  was  as  fair 
as  his  body.  Young  Hercules  had  not  such  arms 
as  his  to  bend  a  bow,  or  such  strength  to  wield  a 
club.  Pollux  could  not  wrestle,  nor  Castor  tame 
wild  horses,  like  the  Prince  of  Wales.  In  his  armour 
he  looked  more  resplendent  than  Hector ;  and  in  the 
chase,  Hippolytus  was  a  fool  to  him  !  Virtue  breathed 
through  his  very  pores,  adds  Sir  Thomas,  and  then 
he  turns  to  the  maiden  queen,  in  whose  reign  he 
penned  his  panegyric,  and,  after  showing  that  in 
Elizabeth  are  centred  all  the  virtues  that  adorned, 
the  merits  that  distinguished,  and  the  beauties  that 
rendered  remarkable  her  august  father,  as  prince  and 
king,  he  earnestly  implores  her  to  marry,  that  another 
little  Prince  of  Wales  may  be  seen  playing  about 
court,  whose  beauty  might  remind  beholders  of  that 
of  Henry  of  Greenwich  —  though  of  course  the  little 
prince  asked  for  would,  as  the  poet  thinks,  certainly 
excel  his  marvellous  grandfather,  both  in  beauty  of 
features  and  grace  of  action ! 

In  youthful  grace  and  beauty,  in  study  and  sports, 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  349 

in  brief  intercourse  with  his  betrothed,  and  in  com- 
munity with  scholars,  the  life  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
passed  on,  till  the  25th  of  April,  1509,  on  which  day 
his  father,  Henry  VII.,  departed.  What  the  popular 
estimate  of  the  prince  was  at  this  period  is  manifested 
in  a  letter  from  Lord  Mount  joy  to  Erasmus :  "  I 
do  not  for  a  moment  doubt,  beloved  Erasmus,"  says 
the  writer,  "  that  your  sorrow  will  be  suddenly  changed 
into  joy  on  hearing  that  Henry  Octavus,  or  rather 
Octavius,  has  succeeded  his  father.  Oh  !  if  you  could 
but  witness  the  happiness  of  the  people,  you  would 
weep  with  joy.  Heaven  smiles,  the  earth  leaps  with 
gladness,  everything  seems  redolent  with  milk,  honey, 
and  nectar."  At  this  burst  of  congratulation,  we 
leave  the  young  prince,  now  king,  with  a  few  added 
words.  Just  two  months  after  his  father's  death,  he 
married  his  brother's  widow  —  living  with  her  as  his 
wife  twenty-four  years,  save  one  month.  Two  sons 
of  this  marriage,  both  of  whom  were  named  after 
their  father,  died  prematurely.  The  Princess  Mary 
was  left  the  only  living  offspring  of  Henry  and 
Katharine.  A  queen  regnant  had  never  hitherto 
been  known  in  England,  which  the  king  looked  upon 
as  a  male-fief.  It  was  not  illegal  for  the  crown  to 
pass  to  an  heiress ;  but  its  due  administration  could 
only  be  derived  from  the  hand  of  a  male  possessor. 
In  the  mind  of  Henry,  the  birth  of  a  prince  was  the 
first  object  of  his  desire,  and  it  was  most  so  when 
there  was  the  least  likelihood  of  its  accomplishment. 

But  in  the  year  15 19,  a  lady,  who  four  years  later 
became  the  wife  of  Sir  Gilbert  Taillebois,  gave  birth 
to  a  son,  of  which  King  Henry  was  the  father,  and 
Wolsey  became  the  **  Gossip."     The  boy  gave  such 


350       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

early  promise  of  beauty  and  intelligence,  that  he  easily 
won  the  especial  love  of  his  graceless  sire.  His 
mother,  a  Blount,  of  the  Shropshire  branch  of  that 
family,  was  very  young  at  the  period  of  the  birth  of 
this  child.  Her  second  husband  was  Lord  Clinton, 
the  first  Earl  of  Lincoln.'  She  was  a  rare  beauty,  of 
sprightly  character,  and  accomplished  in  all  outward 
graces  and  goodly  pastimes.  The  king's  light  o*  love, 
however,  appears  to  have  been  speedily  relieved  of 
all  maternal  superintendence  of  the  young  Lord 
Henry  Fitzroy,  who,  in  his  sixth  year,  began  his 
brief  career  of  greatness,  was  created  Earl  of  Notting- 
ham, at  Bridewell  Palace,  and  subsequently  Duke  of 
Richmond  and  Somerset.  He  was  only  six  years 
of  age  when  he  wore  all  these  titles,  and  the  Garter 
also,  to  add  to  their  splendour.  At  Windsor,  his 
stall  was  placed  next  to  that  of  the  sovereign,  to 
whom,  said  his  patent,  he  was  "  nearly  related ; "  and 
he  had  precedence  given  him  over  all  the  other  dukes 
in  the  peerage. 

Young  as  he  was  in  years,  he  was  despatched  under 
honourable  convoy  and  escort,  to  Sheriff- Hutton  in 
Yorkshire,  where  a  household  was  established  for  him 
as  (nominal)  lord  president  or  viceroy  of  the  northern 
administration.  His  journey  occupied  about  three 
summer  weeks.  His  Grace  "had  a  horse  litter," 
which  he  was  too  manly  to  use  often,  preferring  to 
ride  a  hack  or  "hobye."  Hospitality  was  readily 
afforded  as  he  passed  on  his  way,  burgesses  met  and 
presented  him  with  fish,  lord  abbots  and  other 
godly  men  offered  him  their  homage  and  heaps  of 

*  Inventories  of  Wardrobe,  etc.,  of  Henry  Fitzroy,  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond.    Edited  for  the  Camden  Society,  by  J.  G.  Nichols. 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  351 

fat  venison  and  wild  fowl ;  nobles  lodged  him  at  night, 
and  set  him  forward  on  his  road,  when  it  pleased  his 
little  "  Grace  "  to  leave  them. 

At  Sheriff-Hutton  his  household  was  mounted  on  a 
footing  which  could  not  have  been  exceeded  had  he 
been  residing  in  Ludlow  Castle,  as  acknowledged 
Prince  of  Wales.  Sir  Edward  Seymour,  afterward 
the  Protector  Somerset,  was  master  of  the  horse,  and 
the  Dean  of  York  was  chancellor  of  the  house- 
hold, the  check-roll  of  which  numbered  245  servants, 
whose  annual  stipends  amounted  to  nearly  ;£900. 

In  this  household,  where  nobles  held  office,  and  to 
the  lord  of  which  a  Fairfax  acted  as  sergeant-at- 
law,  there  was  one  indispensable  official  in  the  person 
of  the  well-known  "John  Palsgrave,  schoolmaster." 
This  office  was  subsequently  undertaken  by  Doctor 
Croke  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  which  learned 
gentleman  lived  on  the  very  worst  of  terms  with 
George  Cotton,  the  comptroller  of  the  household  and 
governor  of  the  little  duke's  person. 

Croke  was  a  rigid  disciplinarian.  He  required 
early  rising,  mass  before  lessons,  and  plenty  of  in- 
struction after  it.  But  Cotton,  who  was  a  layman, 
ridiculed  the  priest,  kept  the  "  prince "  in  bed,  per- 
suaded him  to  eschew  early  mass,  expressed  a  con- 
tempt for  Latin,  taught  the  handsome  boy  to  address 
impertinent  speeches  to  his  master,  introduced  to  him 
buffoons  and  such-like  worth-nothings,  and  when  the 
prince  had  acted  worse  than  usual,  actually  rescued 
from  beneath  the  rod  of  the  preceptor  one  of  the 
half-dozen  fellow  pupils  of  the  duke,  whose  privilege 
it  was  to  be  soundly  flogged  whenever  their  more 
illustrious  school   fellow  had  offended,  and  stood  in 


352        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

need  of  understanding  what  his  offence  would  have 
brought  upon  him,  had  not  his  person  been  sacred. 

Doctor  Croke,  in  short,  was  very  ill  used  both  by 
pupils  and  governor.  His  authority  was  entirely  set 
at  nought,  notwithstanding  which,  so  quick  of  intellect 
was  the  duke,  in  his  spare  moments  of  application, 
that  at  eight  years  of  age  he  could  read  Caesar,  and 
could  write  a  fair  Roman  hand,  which  that  villain 
Cotton  did  all  he  could  to  spoil  and  convert  into  a 
vulgar  illegible  secretary  penmanship.  The  dissen- 
sion waxed  in  intensity  and  bitterness,  till  the  poor 
doctor  at  length  surrendered  his  office.  Subsequently, 
the  duke  improved  famously  in  the  facility  with  which 
he  read  his  "  Caesar ; "  and  his  sire  marked  his  ap- 
proval by  bestowing  on  him  a  suit  of  armour. 

At  this  period  Italy  was  in  a  state  of  confusion  and 
anarchy  which  excited  the  pity  of  a  disinterested  mon- 
arch like  Henry,  and  before  his  son  was  ten  years  of 
age  he  had  entertained  an  idea  of  setting  at  least 
Lombardy  free,  by  getting  his  natural  son  made  Duke 
'of  Milan.  Failing  this,  he  began  to  consider  how  he 
might  rid  himself  of  his  daughter  Mary,  by  a  foreign 
marriage,  and  exalt  the  Duke  of  Richmond  by  pro- 
curing for  him  a  bride  from  the  family  of  the  Emperor 
of  Germany.  It  was  intimated  to  the  emperor,  by  the 
English  negotiators  of  this  last  matter,  how  near 
the  duke  was  to  the  king,  how  excellent  his  qualities, 
how  princely  his  condition,  and  how  easily  "  he  might 
be  exalted  to  higher  things,  if  the  king  so  willed  it." 
It  is  clear  that  Henry  Fitzroy  was  never  so  near 
being  Prince  of  Wales  as  when  Lee  and  his  conego- 
tiators  opened  this  view  of  things  to  the  Emperor  of 
Germany. 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  353 

This  and  other  projects  of  a  like  nature  came  to 
nothing.  Richmond  when  about  twelve  years  of  age 
visited  the  Court  of  France  with  the  poet  Earl  of  Sur- 
rey. The  noble  pair  passed  a  year  there,  but  when  the 
duke  returned  he  found  himself  a  person  of  less  impor- 
tance than  before.  Anne  Boleyn  was  in  her  short-lived 
lustre  and  power;  and  she  married  the  duke,  with 
the  king's  consent,  to  the  only  daughter  of  her  uncle, 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  The  bridegroom  was  only  in 
his  fifteenth  year,  but  being  a  married  man  he  attended 
Parliament.  His  last  state,  like  his  life  itself,  was 
only  of  brief  duration,  he  dying  in  his  seventeenth 
year,  at  St.  James's  palace.  He  was  buried  at 
Thetford,  but  his  tomb  is  at  Framlingham. 

The  death  of  this  handsome,  graceful,  and  accom- 
plished lad  terminated  the  uncertainty  in  which  the 
succession  to  the  crown  had  been  during  his  life. 
"Well  it  was  for  them*'  (Mary  and  Elizabeth),  says 
Fuller,  "  that  Henry  Fitzroy,  his  natural  son,  —  but 
one  of  supernatural  and  extraordinary  endowments,  — 
was  dead ;  otherwise,  some  suspect,  had  he  lived  to 
survive  King  Edward  VI.,  we  might  presently  have 
heard  of  King  Henry  IX.,  so  great  was  his  father's 
affection,  and  so  unlimited  his  power  to  prefer  him." 

After  the  divorce  of  Katharine,  down  to  the  death 
of  Henry,  five  consorts,  in  fifteen  years,  shared  his 
perilous  greatness.  Of  these.  Queen  Jane  Seymour 
gave  birth,  in  1537,  to  Prince  Edward,  at  Hampton 
Court.  This  prince,  on  his  accession  as  Edward  VI., 
was  ten  years  old ;  but  he  was  never  created  Prince 
of  Wales.  A  month  before  Henry's  death  a  patent 
for  the  creation  was  about  to  be  prepared ;  but  the 
king's  sickness  and  death  supervened,  and  Edward  of 


354       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Hampton,  although  Duke  of  Cornwall,  was  never 
ruler,  by  himself  or  by  deputy,  of  the  principality.' 
It  has  been  asserted  that,  previous  to  the  birth  of 
Edward,  the  Princesses  Mary  and  Elizabeth  were 
styled  Princesses  of  Wales,  enjoying  all  the  privileges 
thereto  belonging.  Of  this,  however,  there  is  not  a 
shadow  of  proof. 

It  remains  to  be  stated  that,  until  the  creation  of 
Henry  of  Greenwich  as  Prince  of  Wales  and  Earl  of 
Chester,  there  was  always  and  at  the  same  time  a 
charter  passed  for  granting  to  such  prince  the  estates 
and  revenues  belonging  to  the  principality  of  Wales 
and  Earldom  of  Chester  then  in  the  possession  of  the 
Crown.  These  revenues,  according  to  a  survey  made 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third,  amounted  to  ;£"5,986 
ys.  gd.  yearly,  after  deducting  the  salaries  to  the 
judges,  etc.  It  is  said,  also,  that  there  was  sometimes 
passed  another  charter,  by  which  all  arrears  of  rent, 
etc.,  were  granted  to  the  prince.  But  the  passing 
any  such  charters  or  grants  was  omitted  at  the  crea- 
tion of  Henry,  afterward  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  has 
been  ever  since  omitted ;  consequently  the  princes, 
since  that  time,  have  enjoyed  nothing  but  the  titles 
of  Prince  of  Wales  and  Earl  of  Chester,  and  the 
revenues,  by  being  since  granted  away,  are  now  re- 
duced to  little  or  nothing. 

"  But,'*  says  the  anonymous  author  of  "  A  Succinct 
History  of  the  Regencies,  etc.,  in  England,"  pubHshed 
in  173 1,  "as  to  the  estates  and  revenues  of  Cornwall, 
as  they  were  by  Act  of  Parliament  annexed  to  the 
Crown,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third,  and  there- 

*  Courthope  (Somerset  Herald)  in  "  Historie  Peerage,"  by  Sir  H. 

Nieolas. 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  355 

fore  could  not  be  granted  away  without  an  Act  of 
Parliament,  they  remain  the  same,  or  rather  better 
than  they  were  in  the  reign  of  that  king ;  for  no  one 
of  them  has  ever  been  granted  away,  except  the 
Manor  of  Isleworth,  near  London,  and  the  Manor  of 
Wallingford,  in  Oxfordshire;  the  former  of  which 
Henry  the  Fifth  granted  by  authority  of  Parliament 
to  Sion  Monastery,  founded  by  him ;  and  the  latter, 
Henry  the  Eighth,  by  the  same  authority,  made  par- 
cel of  his  honour  of  Newelme ;  but  by  both  these  acts, 
lands  of  greater  value  were  granted  and  annexed  to 
the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  the  yearly  revenues  of  which 
duchy  cannot  be  computed,  because  many  of  them 
are  casual ;  but,  at  the  highest,  can  never  be  near 
sufficient  for  supporting  the  honour  and  dignity  of 
the  heir  apparent  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain." 

From  the  year  1509,  when  Henry  VH.  died,  till 
16 10,  in  which  year  King  James  I.  created  his  son, 
Henry  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  that  title  was  not 
in  existence  in  England.  At  the  expiration  of  10 1 
years,  it  revived  in  the  house  of  Stuart,  when  it 
was  again  borne  by  two  brothers,  both  of  whom  were 
natives  of  Scotland.  Henry  of  Greenwich  was  the 
son  of  an  English-born  mother.  Upwards  of  three 
centuries  elapsed  before  England  saw  another  Prince 
of  Wales  born  of  an  English  mother,  in  the  person 
of  Albert  Edward,  the  son  of  our  lady  and  sovereign. 
Queen  Victoria,  bom  in  the  year  1841. 


Book  IV. 

Princes  of  Wales  of  the 
House  of  Stuart 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE   BROTHER  -  PRINCES    OF    WALES 

Henry  Frederick  of  Stirling.  Born  19th  February,  1594.  Died 
1 61 2  —  Charles  of  Dunfermline.  Bom  19th  November,  1600. 
Died  (king)  1649. 

When  Anne  of  Denmark,  the  consort  of  James  I., 
King  of  Great  Britain,  set  out  from  Holyrood  to  join 
that  monarch  in  the  English  metropohs,  she  was  ac- 
companied by  two  of  her  children,  Henry  and  Eliza- 
beth,—  the  latter  bom  in  1596.  Their  brother, 
"Babie  Charles,"  was  left  behind,  a  poor  weakly 
boy,  at  Dunfermline.  Few  people  augured  long  life 
for  that  delicate  child,  and  it  had  been  a  happy  cir- 
cumstance for  him  had  the  expectation  of  his  death 
been  early  realised. 

When  the  elder  brother  was  christened,  at  Stirling, 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  reformed  Episcopal 
Church  of  Scotland,  the  attendant  ceremony  had 
more  of  splendour  about  it  than  usually  characterised 
the  baptism  of  an  heir  to  the  Scottish  throne.  The 
king,  and  not  the  "gossips,"  gave  the  name;  and  as 
James,  either  in  joy  or  nervousness,  repeated  the 
appellation  forward  and  backward,  **  Henry  Frederick, 
Frederick  Henry,"  so  Cunningham,  Bishop  of  Aber- 
deen, imitated  the  royal  form,  by  pronouncing  three 
times  the  names  as  they  were  delivered  by  the  father. 
The  child  was  healthy,  fair,  and  vigorous. 

359 


360        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Six  years  later  was  born  Prince  Henry's  brother 
Charles,  at  Dunfermline.  Weak  and  languishing  he 
came  into  the  world,  taking,  as  it  were,  a  reluctant 
possession  of  life.  So  brief  a  tenure  was  the  feeble 
prince  expected  to  enjoy,  that  he  was  hurriedly  bap- 
tised, lest  he  should  die  before  he  was  enrolled  a 
member  of  Christ's  flock.  A  month  later,  he  was 
deemed  strong  enough  to  undergo  a  state  christening 
at  Holyrood.  This  ceremony,  however,  lacked  the 
pomp  which  had  distinguished  that  of  the  christening 
of  Henry  Frederick. 

These  two  brothers,  with  their  sister  Elizabeth, 
afterward  Queen  of  Bohemia,  formed  the  surviving 
family  of  James  and  Anne,  when  the  death  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  in  1603,  opened  to  them  a  way  to  that 
throne  which  the  Tudor  sovereign  had  occupied  with 
glory  and  advantage  to  England.  When  James  de- 
parted alone  to  take  possession  of  his  great  inherit- 
ance, in  April,  1603,  his  eldest  son  was  in  his  tenth 
year,  and  was  already  remarkable  for  his  attainments. 
His  mind  was  of  such  precocity  that,  in  his  sixth 
year,  James  considered  him  capable  of  comprehend- 
ing the  excellent  advice  pedantically  given  in  the 
king's  own  work,  the  "  Basilicon  Doron."  The  prin- 
ciples of  this  tripartite  book  were  not  those  which  the 
monarch  himself  ever  cared  to  follow ;  but  he  strongly 
impressed  them  on  his  son,  with  whose  education  he 
had  little  else  to  do,  the  young  heir  of  Scotland  being 
shut  up  in  the  strong  castle  of  Stirling,  lest  mischief 
should  befall  him,  and  the  Crown  lose  its  first  begot- 
ten heir. 

He  was  yet  but  a  mere  child  when  he  addressed  a 
letter  in  French  to  the  States  General.     His  Latin 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  361 

letters  to  his  sire  bespeak  marvellous  proficiency,  if 
they  were  of  his  own  composition,  which  the  learned 
father  himself  sometimes  doubted.  Similar  letters 
were  addressed  by  the  little  scholar  to  his  kinsfolk,  — 
nicely  phrased,  but  somewhat  stilted,  —  altogether 
unchildish.  By  the  time  he  had  entered  his  ninth 
year  he  had  already  got  beyond  Phaedrus,  into  the 
elegancies  and  difficulties  of  the  comedies  of  Terence, 
and  the  epistles  of  Cicero.  Nor  was  he  a  mere  book- 
ish boy ;  he  could  ride,  dance,  and  sing  with  skill ; 
and  Richard  Preston,  a  good  soldier,  instructed  him 
in  the  use  of  arms,  —  sword  and  gun,  how  to  bend  a 
bow,  toss  a  pike,  and  use  a  target,  —  services  which 
were  munificently  recompensed  by  planting  the  said 
Richard  in  the  peerage  of  Ireland  by  the  proud  and 
ancient  title  of  Earl  of  Desmond, 

The  instruction  of  the  youthful  prince  was  indeed 
a  matter  of  wonderful  interest  to  others  besides  his 
kinsfolk.  No  less  an  individual  than  Pope  Clement 
VIII.  was  anxious  to  have  the  direction  of  it.  James 
was  informed  that  if  he  would  permit  this  papal 
superintendence,  Rome  would  assist  him  with  all 
her  power  against  any  opposition  to  his  accession 
to  the  throne  of  England.  The  king  wisely  declined 
the  offer,  and  bided  his  time.  That  he  was  opposed 
to  the  proposal  was  sufficient  ground  for  so  perverse 
a  lady  as  his  wife  to  look  upon  it  with  favour.  No 
wonder  that  a  Scottish  Puritan  minister  intimated 
from  his  pulpit  to  the  "guid  Lord,"  that  people 
might  pray  for  the  queen  for  the  fashion's  sake,  but 
that  there  was  no  justification  for  their  doing  so, 
"for  she  will  never  do  us  any  guid." 

When  James  had  reached  the  English  throne  with- 


362        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

out  papal  aid,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  son,  remark- 
able for  its  proud  tone  and  deep  sagacity.  *'  Let  not 
this  news,"  he  says,  "make  you  proud  or  insolent, 
for  a  king's  son  and  heir  was  you  before,  and  no 
more  are  ye  yet.  The  augmentation  that  is  hereby 
like  to  fall  unto  you,  is  but  in  cares  and  heavy 
burthens."  Prince  Henry,  however,  considered,  or 
was  taught  to  consider,  that  the  throne  of  Great 
Britain  was  a  higher  seat  than  the  sovereign  chair 
of  Scotland ;  and  in  a  missive  to  "  Madame,  and  most 
honoured  mother,"  he  congratulates  her  on  "the 
happy  success  of  this  great  turn,  almost  above  men's 
expectation."  The  prince's  Latin  reply  to  his  sire's 
epistle  is  only  worth  noticing  for  the  sake  of  stating, 
at  the  same  time,  that  it  must  have  been  dictated. 
It  has  no  trace  in  it  of  the  simplicity  of  young 
Arthur's  letters  to  Katharine  of  Arragon. 

Anne  of  Denmark,  with  the  son  at  her  side  who 
had  hitherto  been  in  the  keeping  of  the  Earl  of  Mar, 
and  accompanied  also  by  her  young  daughter  Eliza- 
beth, left  Holyrood  for  Windsor  in  May,  1603,  arriv- 
ing at  the  latter  palace  in  June,  after  a  month's 
progress.  Of  all  the  wel  comings  that  greeted  the 
travellers,  the  most  brilliant  was  that  at  Althorpe, 
where  Ben  Jonson  met  the  illustrious  company  with 
a  masque,  and  in  Spenser's  woods  poured  out  his 
musical  felonies  from  Paradise,  in  the  ears  of  the 
queen  and  of  the  prince,  on  whom  Ben's  eager 
eye  — 

"  Did  feel  itself,  but  could  not  satisfy." 

Ben  hoped  for  a  hero  in  young  Henry,  such  as 
England  had  possessed  in  the  other  Henry  of  Agin- 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  363 

court  —  or   the   Edward    of    Cressy   and    Poictiers. 
Therefore  sang  the  poet  to  the  prince: 


"  Shine  bright  and  fixed  as  the  Arctic  star, 
And  when  slow  time  hath  made  you  fit  for  war, 
Look  over  the  salt  ocean,  and  think  where 
You  may  but  lead  us  forth  who  grow  up  here, 
Against  a  day  when  our  ofiicious  swords 
Shall  speak  our  actions  better  than  our  words." 


The  same  idea  took  possession  also  of  more  pro- 
saic men.  Soon  after  the  little  prince  was  settled 
at  Oatlands,  Lord  Spencer  sent  him  a  copy  of  the 
"  Memoirs  of  De  Comines  ; "  and  Colonel  Edmondes, 
when  presenting  him  with  a  suit  of  armour  and  the 
works  of  Froissart,  —  a  gift  from  Holland,  —  declared 
his  "  hope  in  God  that  Henry  should  follow  the  foot- 
steps of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  King  Edward  HI.'s 
son."  Swords,  guns,  and  targets  were  also  the  appro- 
priate and  significant  gifts  made  to  this  child,  after 
the  discovery  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  in  1605.  Kings 
and  princes,  English  nobles  and  gentles,  made  him 
at  various  times  similar  offerings.  Henri  IV.  of 
France  sent  him  a  panoply ;  and  if  he  slept  for 
a  night  at  the  house  of  an  English  gentleman,  it  \yas 
not  uncommon  for  the  host  to  pray  his  acceptance, 
when  leaving,  of  a  suit  of  armour,  worth  several  hun- 
dred pounds.  Henry  of  Stirling,  too,  acted  up  to 
his  warlike  reputation,  and  young  as  he  was  when, 
in  1603,  his  sire  buckled  the  garter  beneath  his 
knee,  he  exhibited  all  the  graces  of  chivalry  at  the 
ceremony,  —  a  nobly  modest  bearing,  quickness  of 
wit,  and  at  the  altar  a  reverence  of  action  worthy 


364       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  young  Samuel.  In  aid  of  his  knighthood,  levies 
were  made  on  the  public.  London  alone,  on  one 
occasion,  contributed  nearly  ;£  1,300.  The  clergy 
and  laity  of  Rutlandshire  especially  distinguished 
themselves  by  expressing  their  willingness  to  be 
taxed,  as  the  first  fruits  of  their  love  for  such  a 
prince.  The  product  of  the  impost  was  increased 
by  a  politic  artifice.  Formerly  the  levy  in  aid  for 
knighting  a  prince  was  made  at  the  rate  of  one  shil- 
ling in  the  pound,  on  the  value  of  land ;  but  on  this 
occasion  landholders  were  informed  that  no  compul- 
sion would  be  employed.  They  were  left  to  mete 
the  levy  by  the  measure  of  their  love,  and  out  of 
affection  or  policy  they  replied  Hberally  to  the  inti- 
mation. Whenever  the  young  prince  entered  a  new 
order  of  chivalry,  the  occasion  was  made  use  of  to 
mulct  the  landholder,  whose  inclination  was  often 
directed  by  the  government.  Such  ceremonies  "  ad- 
mitted of  a  willing  contribution  from  the  people," 
says  sly  old  Wilson,  "  and  such  old  customs  as  bring 
in  money  are  never  out  of  date." 

After  all,  young  Henry  was  only  a  home-keeping 
knight.  The  most  terrible  passage  at  arms  in  which 
he  was  ever  engaged,  previous  to  his  being  created 
Prince  of  Wales  (in  1610),  was  at  the  famous  tilting 
behind  the  barriers,  which  followed  the  famous 
challenges  in  Whitehall.  The  mock  affrays,  sus- 
tained by  the  prince  and  troops  of  friends  divided 
into  antagonists,  were  performed  —  for  such  is  the 
proper  term  —  in  presence  of  illustrious  and  applaud- 
ing spectators.  It  was  a  jousting  of  four  days'  con- 
tinuance, so  systematic  in  its  theatrical  aspect,  that 
registrars  noted   the   numbers   of   pike-thrusts  and 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  365 

cuts  of  the  sword  made  by  the  carpet  chevalier,  who 
was  then  older  than  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  at  the 
time  he  stood  victor  on  the  field  of  Cressy. 

The  mimic  fray  was  followed  by  carousing.  On 
the  evening  that  succeeded  Twelfth  Night,  in  the 
year  last  mentioned,  as  Chamberlain  writes  to  Win- 
wood,  "  the  prince  with  his  assistants  all  in  a  livery, 
and  the  defendants  in  their  best  bravery,  rode  in 
great  pomp  to  convoy  the  king  to  St.  James's, 
whither  he  had  invited  him  and  all  the  court  to 
supper,  the  queen  only  being  absent,  and  there  ended 
his  table,  the  allowance  whereof,  from  the  publishing 
his  challenge,  had  been  ;£ioo  a  day." 

There  was,  perhaps,  more  of  the  admiral  than  of 
the  general  in  the  eldest  son  of  James  I. ;  the  interest 
he  took  in  the  navy  seemed  to  be  marked  by  more  of 
serious  earnestness.  He  had  scarcely  been  a  year 
in  England,  when  Phineas  Pett,  one  of  the  masters 
of  Woolwich  Dockyard,  constructed  for  the  prince 
a  model  ship,  twenty-eight  feet  by  twelve,  which  lay 
off  the  king's  private  stairs  at  Whitehall,  and  which 
Henry  himself  had  named  the  Disdain.  In  this 
vessel  he  made  fresh-water  voyages,  and  the  Disdain 
became  a  familiar  sight  on  the  river.  The  princely 
admiral  was  promoted  to  a  larger  vessel  in  1606, 
when  in  his  twelfth  year.  On  this  occasion  he  had 
accompanied  his  uncle,  King  Christian  of  Denmark, 
a  recent  visitor  at  court,  to  Gravesend,  where  lay  the 
Danish  fleet  waiting  to  convoy  its  master  home. 
The  king  made  a  present  of  his  vice-admiral's  ship  to 
little  Henry,  the  value  of  which  was  £2,^00,  adding 
thereto  a  naval  rapier  and  hanger,  worth  a  couple  of 
thousand   marks.     In   the   barge   belonging   to   the 


366       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Dane,  the  prince  frequently  rowed  to  Woolwich, 
where  he  inspected  the  yard,  partook  of  very  excel- 
lent cheer,  and  was  saluted  at  arrival  and  departure 
with  unusual  salutes  from  brazen  "  chambers  "  cun- 
ningly disposed.  When  these  were  first  fired  in 
Prince  Henry's  honour,  he  approached  this  dread 
artillery,  and  ordered  that  they  should  again  be  loaded 
and  discharged  in  his  presence.  Phineas  Pett,  how- 
ever, fell  into  a  loyal  trepidation  at  the  thought  of 
the  peril  to  which  such  an  exhibition  of  villainous 
saltpetre  might  subject  the  hope  of  the  nation,  and 
with  much  ado  he  persuaded  the  curious  prince  to 
get  into  his  barge  and  row  out  of  harm's  way,  where, 
waving  his  handkerchief  as  a  signal,  the  brazen 
mouths  pealed  forth  such  a  song  of  war  as  proved 
highly  agreeable  to  the  nicely  critical  ears  of  the 
music-loving  prince. 

Phineas  Pett  was  his  especial  favourite,  and  the 
friendship  of  Henry  was  manifested  for  him  on 
the  occasion  when  the  master  was  involved  with 
others  in  a  hostile  accusation  of  malpractices  in  the 
dockyard.  The  young  heir  to  the  throne  stood  by 
him  during  the  inquiry,  and,  when  this  had  terminated 
to  Pett's  justification,  Henry  expressed  an  indignant 
regret  that  Pett's  accusers  could  not  be  rewarded 
with  a  halter. 

Almost  from  the  month  of  the  prince's  arrival  in 
England  he  had  his  separate  establishment  —  at  first 
at  Oatlands,  with  his  sister  Elizabeth,  subsequently  at 
Nonsuch  and  Hampton  also;  and  in  town  at  St. 
James's,  where  barns  and  stables  were  erected  for 
him  by  the  king's  command.  In  the  early  years,  at 
Oatlands,  the  establishment  comprised  seventy  ser- 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  367 

vants  —  of  whom  twenty -two  were  for  "the  cham- 
ber," serving  in  the  prince's  presence,  and  forty-eight 
"below."  Subsequently  the  number  was  more  than 
doubled  —  the  superintendence  of  the  whole  was  in 
the  hands  of  Sir  Thomas  Chaloner.  So  ill-regulated 
was  this  establishment,  through  the  uncertainty  of 
the  pecuniary  supplies  promised  by  the  government, 
that  servants  were  constantly  in  arrears  of  wages ; 
and  purveyors  enforced  delayed  payments  by  refusing 
to  furnish  provisions !  As  Henry  grew  older  his 
houses  contained  a  gay  companionship  of  "  sprightly 
blossoms,"  as  Wilson  calls  them  ;  and  these  probably 
gave  some  trouble  to  Colmer,  the  king's  "cock- 
master,"  whose  privilege  it  was  to  decide  all  disputed 
wagers  relative  to  cock-fighting.  Three  thousand 
pounds,  yearly,  was  the  sum  allowed  for  the  prince's 
apparel  and  linen,  but  the  expense  was  for  ever  in 
excess  of  the  allowance.  The  apothecaries  pre- 
sented large  claims  for  "phisicale  and  odoriferous 
things "  for  the  prince's  use ;  and  there  was  more 
spent  upon  jewels  than  on  books.  The  young  mas- 
ter was  not  insensible  to  the  uses  of  money ;  and  was 
so  watchful  of  his  rights,  that  in  1609  he  claimed,  as 
Duke  of  Cornwall,  the  rent  and  arrears  of  rent  of 
land  (amounting  to  about  ;£ioo  per  annum)  belong- 
ing formerly  to  the  recently  dissolved  "Priory  of 
Coventry."  About  his  country-houses  were  the 
Spanish  hawks  and  Danish  hounds  sent  as  gifts  from 
beyond  sea.  On  his  tables  was  the  renowned  linen 
manufactured  in  Holland,  and  presented  to  him  by 
the  Dutch  government.  At  this  time  all  the  royal 
residences  were  distinguished  by  considerable  riot 
and  confusion.     Those  of  Prince  Henry  are  supposed 


368       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  have  formed  an  exception,  from  a  fact  which  proves 
the  rule  —  namely,  that  he  had  boxes  in  each  house 
in  which  were  deposited  the  fines  levied  on  all  persons 
detected  in  swearing.  These  were  divided  among 
the  neighbouring  poor.  The  more  blasphemy  reigned 
in  the  palace,  the  greater  their  comfort  in  their  huts 
and  villages. 

For  companionship  the  prince  had  more  of  the 
society  of  his  sister  Elizabeth  than  of  that  of  his 
melancholy  brother  Charles.  Between  the  two 
former  there  was  a  marked  similarity  of  character 
and  features.  They  frequently  rode  out  together, 
and  the  princess  loved  her  brother,  as  fondly  as 
Elizabeth  of  York  loved  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
precocious  Richard  who  perished  in  the  tower.  At 
four  o'clock  of  an  August  morning,  the  prince  was 
out  with  his  hounds;  and,  though  not  unmeasurably 
addicted  to  hunting,  his  letters  contain,  in  return  for 
paternal  permission  to  follow  the  chase,  promise  of 
increased  application  to  his  studies. 

And  of  these  I  will  now  say  a  few  words.  They 
were  directed  by  Adam  Newton,  who,  though  a  lay- 
man, was  subsequently  appointed  Dean  of  Durham, 
a  piece  of  preferment  which  he  ultimately  resigned  for 
a  baronetcy.  This  appointment  of  laymen  to  ecclesi- 
astical offices  was  then  not  uncommon  —  it  was  only 
suppressed  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  The  year 
previous  to  the  creation  of  Henry  as  Prince  of  Wales, 
Lord  Eure,  the  president  of  the  principality,  informed 
Chamberlain  (in  a  letter  to  be  found  in  the  Domestic 
Series  at  the  State  Paper  Office,  a  series  in  which 
I  have  found  many  scattered  facts  which  I  have  here 
produced)  that  ministers  were  so  scarce  in  Wales, 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  369 

the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  had  been  compelled  to  allow 
laymen  to  officiate  in  the  churches. 

Mr.  Newton  was  the  prince's  "paedagogue,"  keeping 
his  pupil  close  to  his  "  humanities,"  and  occasionally 
exchanging  sharp  words,  on  occasional  provocation. 
Under  his  supervision,  the  prince  was  wont  to  trans- 
mit New  Year's  gifts  to  the  king  in  the  shape  of 
Latin  letters,  themes,  essays,  and  occasionally  a  bunch 
of  lumbering  hexameters.  On  the  strength  of  this, 
the  rehgious  and  literary  world,  and  even  English 
Senecas,  like  Hall,  or  country  simpletons,  like  Coryat, 
pelted  him  with  dedications,  for  which  he  made  a 
princely  return  in  diamonds.  The  king  contemplated 
his  scholarship  with  pride,  and  accordingly  the  queen 
endeavoured  to  render  him  less  inclined  to  the  Muses 
than  to  amusement.  Indeed  Harlay,  the  French 
minister,  declared  of  her  that  she  would  make  a 
Romanist  of  the  boy,  if  the  king  should  die  during 
his  son's  minority. 

Adam  Newton's  honorarium  as  "  schoolmaster  for 
Prince  Henry  "  was  ;£"200  per  annum,  but  he  had  an 
occasional  gift,  by  warrant  on  the  treasury,  of  much 
more  than  that  sum.  Nor  was  this  young  Henry's 
only  master.  Ferabosco  taught  him  music  at  a  trifle 
less  than  one  pound  per  week  ;  and  Henri  IV.,  whose 
admiration  of  the  prince's  penmanship  was  known  to 
all  Europe,  sent  him  Peter  Bourdin,  Lord  of  St. 
Anthoine,  to  make  him  equally  skilful  in  horseman- 
ship. It  is  a  truth  that  at  a  very  early  period  Henry 
showed  a  love  for  contemporary  history,  and  Newton, 
to  encourage  this,  willingly  placed  before  him  all 
letters  from  travellers  abroad,  containing  accounts  of 
the  writers'  experience  in   the  morals,  customs,  and 


370        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

history  of  the  nations  they  traversed.  Henry  further 
developed  this  taste  for  himself  by  appointing  Lydyat, 
the  famed  opponent  of  Scaliger,  to  the  offices  of  his 
chronographer  and  cosmographer.  The  purchase 
made  by  the  king  of  Lord  Lumley's  library  for  him, 
was  another  aid  toward  the  acquirement  of  that 
knowledge  which  this  modem  Henry  Beau  Clerc 
loved  to  lay  up. 

Nevertheless,  his  houses  were  not  invariably  locali- 
ties where  this  love  could  be  quietly  and  uninter- 
ruptedly cherished.  "  The  prince's  household,"  writes 
Chaloner  to  Sir  Julius  Caesar,  "  intended  by  the  king 
for  courtly  college  or  collegiate  court,  was  become  so 
great  a  court,  that  it  was  ready  to  be  overwhelmed 
with  the  charge  and  burden  of  itself."  The  master 
thereof  was  of  more  regular  habits  than  his  followers, 
and  never  while  he  lived,  after  the  Gunpowder  Plot, 
did  he  omit  repairing  to  sermon  on  a  Tuesday, 
the  day  of  the  week  on  which  the  conspiracy  was 
to  have  been  carried  into  effect.  **  I  shall  have 
lived  to  no  purpose,"  once  exclaimed  the  saintly 
and  scholarly,  Hall,  "if  I  fail  to  profit  that  princely 
soul ! " 

Had  all  the  learned  and  illustrious  personages  who 
admired,  or  affected  to  admire,  Henry  of  Stirling, 
tempered  their  admiration  as  discreetly  as  that  divine, 
they,  too,  might  have  profited  rather  than  spoiled,  or, 
as  Sahsbury  did,  polluted,  the  mind  of  the  prince. 
The  adulation  was  in  more  than  one  sense  offensive. 
Cornwallis  wrote  to  him  that  he  was  "the  perfect 
composition  of  the  graces  of  God  and  nature,"  and 
he  prattled  of  the  lustre  of  the  beams  of  his  virtue,  as 
something  too  bright  for  mortal  to  look  upon.     Salis- 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  371 

bury's  son,  Lord  Cranborne,  informed  him  that  the 
eyes  and  hopes  of  his  youth  were  in  Henry's  person 
and  fortune.  To  be  deprived  of  the  pleasure  of  the 
prince's  presence  is,  of  course,  to  be  in  darkness 
worse  than  Cimmerian,  and  to  behold  that  gracious 
countenance  is  once  more  to  bask  in  the  warmth  and 
light  of  a  new  sun.  Foreign  ambassadors  extolled  in 
his  hearing  his  virtues  and  accomplishments  ;  and 
when  they  wrote  to  their  royal  masters  recommenda- 
tions to  procure  influence  in  the  princely  household, 
by  pensioning  some  of  the  inmates,  the  kings,  wiser 
than  their  legates,  procured  the  influence  at  a  cheaper 
rate,  by  eulogising  the  princely  judgment  as  self- 
dependent,  and  not  to  be  biassed  by  meaner  souls. 
Occasionally  Henry  had  a  neat  answer  at  hand  for 
the  fulsome  flatterers,  and  when  Lord  Dunfermline 
presented  him  with  a  catalogue  of  his  virtues,  Henry 
remarked  that  the  list  was  of  possessions  to  be 
acquired  by  him,  not  already  enjoyed.  Between  the 
French  and  Spanish  ambassadors,  each  coveting  his 
alhance,  he  was  nearly  strangled  by  the  stringency  of 
their  affectionate  flattery. 

So  habituated  to  incense,  he  well  knew  in  his  own 
turn  to  scatter  it  skilfully  where  there  was  a  divinity 
to  be  propitiated,  as  in  the  case  of  that  most  Sacred 
Majesty  his  father,  at  the  frequent  recollection  of 
whose  vast  benefits  conferred  on  him,  Henry  declares 
that  he  is  stricken  into  silence  and  amazement.  It 
was  the  disease  of  the  times.  Even  the  most  schol- 
arly were  affected  by  it,  and  Sir  John  Harrington 
himself,  pretending  inability  to  comprehend  a  passage 
in  the  "  Agricola  "  of  Tacitus,  implores  the  prince  to 
enlighten  him,  or  he  must  rest  for  ever  in  utter  dark- 


372        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ness;  and  also  to  pardon  the  childish  weakness  of 
a  letter  destitute  of  the  graces  and  learning  which 
mark  the  epistles  of  his  Royal  Highness  ! 

Worse  than  all  these,  however,  was  James's  "  little 
beagle,"  Salisbury,  the  lord  treasurer,  of  whom  the 
prince  early  entertained  a  jealousy  which  the  wily 
statesman  refused  to  discern.  Does  Salisbury  inad- 
vertently leave  Royston  without  kissing  the  prince's 
hand,  he  accuses  himself  of  "gross  and  beastly 
oblivion."  He  avows  himself  a  greater  ass  than 
"Tom  Derry,"  the  queen's  fool,  and  piles  up  the 
most  nauseous  adulation,  such  as  might  win  contempt 
from  the  court  buffoon.  There  is  no  species  of  flat- 
tery which  Salisbury  does  not  employ.  To  flatter 
one  man  he  vituperates  thousands,  and  the  villain 
thinks  he  has  said  an  acceptable  thing  to  a  boy  of 
fifteen,  when  he  intimates  in  the  very  coarsest  terms 
that  all  the  maidens  of  England  make  small  account 
of  their  honour,  when  they  think  of  the  irresistible 
beauty  of  this  paragon  of  a  prince. 

Henry  of  Stirling  matriculated  at  Oxford,  at  as 
early  a  period  as  Henry  of  Monmouth.  Magdalen 
received  him  in  1605,  when  he  was  but  eleven  years 
old.  His  reception  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  fes- 
tival of  several  days,  comprising  much  versifying,  and 
Latin  plays,  and  disputations  in  law,  divinity,  philos- 
ophy, and  medicine.  Some  of  these  disputations 
were  on  recondite  questions,  as  "Whether  children 
imbibe  the  temper  with  the  milk  of  their  nurses,"  and 
similar  notable  subjects.  Even  James  himself  grew 
weary  of  the  solemn  trifling,  and  showed  his  humour  ; 
but  Henry  bore  bravely  up  through  it  all,  and  Wake 
assures  us  that  the  university  saw  as  much  of  the 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  373 

prince's  temper  and  genius  as  answered  their  most 
sanguine  wishes. 

In  such  wise  the  young  years  of  this  hopeful  prince 
passed  on  till  16 10  arrived,  and  Bacon  and  Hobart 
were  employed  to  draw  up  the  preamble  of  the 
patent  for  his  creation  as  Prince  of  Wales.  To 
the  great  act  itself  we  will  now  devote  a  few  illus- 
trative lines. 

The  ceremony  of  making  Henry  Prince  of  Wales 
was  not  confined  to  a  mere  parliamentary  solemnity, 
but  all  London  was  provided  with  a  gallant  show  on 
the  occasion.  Never  did  May  go  out  or  June  come 
in  accompanied  by  such  "  bravery  "  as  made  holiday 
in  honour  of  the  event. 

On  Wednesday  evening,  the  30th  of  May,  the 
prince  and  a  troop  of  young  companions  went  from 
St.  James's  to  Richmond,  to  sup,  sleep,  and  return 
processionally  next  morning. 

This  latter  passage  was  made  by  water;  the  day 
was  fine,  the  river  and  shores  covered  with  shouting 
spectators,  and  the  progress  so  slow  that  the  prince 
landed  for  awhile  at  Barnes,  where  he  "refreshed 
himself  in  an  arbour  by  the  waterside,  and  took  a 
short  repast  of  such  sweetmeats  and  other  things  as 
could  then  be  provided  on  the  sudden."' 

On  again  getting  afloat,  the  gay  procession  dropped 
down  to  Chelsea,  where  the  city  companies,  in  fifty- 
four  stately  barges,  met  the  young  hero  of  the  day. 
Here,  too,  the  fairest  nymph  the  city  could  hire,  and 
who  had  courage  to  mount  a  pasteboard  whale,  was 
towed  alongside  the  royal  barge,  where,  as  Corinna, 
genius  of  Great  Britain,   she  addressed  the  "great 

»  Nichols,  "  Prog.  James  I." 


374       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Duke  of  Cornwall "  in  a  speech  as  full  of  pedantic 
conceits  as  could  justify  the  pedantic  fashion  of  the 
times. 

From  this  spot,  at  two  o'clock  p.  m.,  the  city  barges 
and  sea-monsters  escorted  the  prince  and  his  company 
to  the  capital.  As  the  joyous  array  reached  White- 
hall, the  tide  was  at  flood,  and  the  show  at  its  bright- 
est. To  see  the  latter,  the  king  and  other  members 
of  the  royal  family  stood  at  the  privy-gallery  windows. 
Delicate  seamanship  extricated  the  prince  and  his 
flotilla  from  the  press  of  boats,  and  after  some  ma- 
noeuvring, he  landed  at  Whitehall  Stairs,  on  his  way 
to  which  he  was  bidden  farewell  in  another  pedantic 
oration,  delivered  by  Amphion,  riding  on  a  dolphin, 
and  announcing  himself  as  the  genius  of  Wales. 

At  Whitehall  the  prince  had  been  expected  at  noon, 
and  dinner  had  been  commanded  accordingly,  but 
now  it  was  getting  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  after 
much  showy  and  solemn  state  observed  at  his  landing 
and  entering  the  palace,  he  sate  down  to  meat,  and, 
wearied  with  the  formalities  of  the  day,  went  early  to 
bed. 

Nothing  further  was  done  until  the  following  Mon- 
day, when  at  half-past  ten  another  water  procession 
was  formed,  in  which  the  king  conducted  his  son  to 
the  landing-place  at  Westminster,  whence,  suitably 
attended,  the  august  couple  proceeded  on  foot  to  the 
Upper  House  of  Parliament,  heralded,  surrounded,  and 
followed  by  a  gorgeously  arrayed  multitude  of  peers. 
After  awhile,  the  king  ascended  the  throne,  royally 
robed,  and  there  awaited  the  coming  of  his  son. 
Prince  Henry  speedily  entered  with  his  company. 
He  wore  a  surcoat  of  purple  velvet,  and  he  walked 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  375 

bareheaded.  He  was  preceded  by  Garter,  bearing 
the  letters  patent,  and  was  supported  by  the  Earl  of 
Nottingham  (privy  seal)  and  the  Earl  of  Northampton 
(lord  admiral).  The  prince  bowed  thrice  as  he  ad- 
vanced toward  the  throne,  and  then  knelt  there  on 
a  rich  cushion  while  the  important  document,  which 
Garter,  after  respectfully  kissing  it,  had  delivered  to 
the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  was  read  by  that  nobleman. 
The  reading  having  been  concluded,  the  king  "put 
the  robes  upon  him,"  girded  him  with  the  sword,  in- 
vested him  with  the  rod  and  ring,  and  set  the  cap 
and  coronet  on  his  head.  Thus  attired  and  adorned, 
the  prince  was  conducted  by  the  Earls  of  Worcester 
and  Suffolk  to  his  place  on  the  left  hand  of  his  father, 
the  king. 

At  this  point  James  was  informed  that  etiquette 
required  him  to  kiss  the  newly  created  prince,  but 
James  was  a  strict  discipHnarian,  and  he  first  ex- 
tended his  hand  to  his  son  to  be  kissed,  before  he 
arose  and  heartily  kissed  his  son.  Some  state  for- 
mality followed,  at  the  end  of  which  the  water  proces- 
sion was  again  formed,  "the  trumpets  sounding  in 
the  row-barge  all  the  way  as  they  went,  and  the  heralds 
going  before  them  in  the  same." 

The  chronicler  quoted  in  Nichols's  "  Progresses  of 
James "  adds  that  "  the  king  that  day  dined  above, 
but  the  prince  dined  in  the  hall  and  was  served  with 
great  state  and  magnificence."  He  sat  at  the  head 
of  the  centre-table  of  three  placed  "longways,"  and 
with  him  his  brother  Charles,  Duke  of  York,  and 
"divers  great  lords."  Instead  of  toasts  and  health- 
giving,  and  odious  speech-making,  the  guests  were 
edified  by  proclaiming  the  style  and  title  of  the  king 


376       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

and  prince  in  English,  French,  and  Latin,  with  the 
usual  largesses.  "  Then  the  trumpets  sounding,  the 
second  course  came  in,  and  dinner  done,  that  day's 
solemnity  ceased." 

Four  and  twenty  noblemen  and  gentlemen  were 
created  Knights  of  the  Bath  in  honour  of  this  occa- 
sion. This  creation  was  a  process  of  some  length. 
They  met  at  Durham  House,  in  the  Strand,  on  the 
previous  Saturday,  prayed,  supped,  bathed,  "each  in 
a  several  bathing-tub  which  was  lined  both  within 
and  without  with  white  linen  and  covered  with  rich 
say,  and  a  ticket  of  every  man's  name  set  upon  his 
tub  very  orderly."  After  this  ceremony  the  elevated 
gentlemen  went  all  to  their  pallet  beds  in  one  room, 
each  pallet  spread  beneath  the  sleeper's  shield  of 
arms.  Sunday  was  a  solemn  day  for  them  and  a 
gay  one  for  London.  They  went  through  much 
praying  and  changing  of  costume,  before  they  rode 
forth  to  Whitehall  to  be  invested  by  the  king,  and  so 
rendered  fit  to  feast  with  the  prince  on  Monday. 
They  attended  divine  service  in  the  royal  chapel,  and 
on  retiring  were  encountered  by  the  chief  cook,  gilt- 
handled  hatchet  in  hand,  who  challenged  their  spurs, 
received  his  fees,  and  bade  them  to  ever  keep  in  mind 
their  duty  as  knights,  or  he  might  yet  have  to  hack 
off  the  spurs  from  the  heels  of  any  among  them  who 
should  disgrace  their  chivalry.  Thus  warned  and 
armed,  they  were  fitted  for  companionship  next  day 
with  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

A  letter  in  Winwood's  "  Memorial's,"  '  treating  of 
this  matter,  states  that,  after  the  prince  was  invested, 
he  offered  with  a  low  reverence  to  depart,  but  "  the 

'Vol.  iii.  p.  179. 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  377 

king  stept  to  him,  and  as  it  were  by  the  way  of  wel- 
come to  that  degree  of  greatness,  took  him  by  the 
hand,  and  then  kissed  him."  Of  the  banquet  the  same 
writer  states  that  "he  who  sat  nearest  unto  the 
prince  was  the  full  distance  of  half  the  board  from 
him."  In  addition  to  all  this  there  were  jousts  in  the 
tilt-yard,  and  a  slashing  sea-fight  and  fireworks  on  the 
Thames,  and  masques  at  court,  the  machinery  of  which 
must  have  pressed  heavily  on  the  treasury,  and  costly 
gifts  made  to  the  prince,  and  therewith  a  grand  court 
ball,  commenced  by  children  and  carried  on  by  their 
elders  till  "  it  was  high  time  to  go  to  bed,  for  it  was 
within  an  hour  of  the  sun's,  not  setting,  but  rising. 
Howbeit  a  further  time  was  to  be  spent  in  viewing 
and  scrambling  at  one  of  the  most  magnificent  ban- 
quets I  have  ever  seen."  So  that  the  Elizabethan 
school  must  have  had  a  rudeness  in  it  to  which  mod- 
em discourtesy  may  proudly  turn  at  scrambling  sup- 
pers, and  cite  as  an  authority.  Altogether  the  inves- 
titure of  this  Prince  of  Wales  must  have  cost  a  large 
sum,  and  yet  contemporaries  saw  a  sort  of  shabbiness 
in  it,  as  we  gather  from  3.  letter  of  Dudley  Carleton 
to  Sir  Thomas  Edmonds,  in  which  he  says  of  the 
programme  of  all  that  was  to  follow  the  actual  cere- 
mony of  investiture,  that  it  was  to  be  "  performed  in 
as  private  a  manner  as  may  be,  and  altogether  after 
the  fashion  of  Prince  Arthur,  first  son  to  Henry  VII. 
who,  you  know,  was  a  good  husband  "  (of  his  money). 
"  And  the  king  in  this  time  of  necessity,  which  is  so 
prest  to  the  Parliament,  is  not  willing  to  undergo  any 
needless  expense,  which  is  the  cause  that  makes 
the  creation  so  private;  whereas,  otherwise,  there 
was  to  have  been  a  solemn  entry  and  passage  through 


378       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  city  of  London,  which  is  now  contracted  betwixt 
Whitehall  and  Westminster,  and  that  by  water." 

Hitherto,  our  Princes  of  Wales  had  only  added  to 
that  title  those  of  Duke  of  Cornwall  and  Aquitaine, 
Earls  of  Flint  and  Chester,  and  perhaps  a  nominal 
barony,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Black  Prince,  who  was 
Lord  Warke  in  right  of  Joan.  Henry  of  StirHng 
brought  with  him  a  garland  of  new  titles,  the  most 
of  which  have  been  inherited  by  successive  heirs 
apparent  of  the  English  throne  —  namely.  Prince 
and  Steward  of  Scotland,  Duke  of  Rothsay,  Earl  of 
Carrick,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  and  Baron  and  Knight 
of  Renfrew. 

For  the  support  of  his  household  he  was  allowed 
jQifSOO  monthly,  but  this  did  not  include  his  entire 
revenue.  Grants  were  made  to  him  of  ancient  pos- 
sessions in  Wales,  to  the  amount,  in  round  numbers, 
of  ;£4,ooo  annually.  From  the  honour  of  Eye,  in 
Suffolk,  and  similar  resources,  he  derived  about 
;£3,ooo  annually,  and  he  had  other  means  supplied 
by  the  treasury,  when  his  expenses  exceeded  his 
income.  It  speaks  ill  for  the  bespeakers  of  the 
masques  and  other  braveries  which  celebrated  his 
creation,  that,  for  years  after,  the  honest  men  who 
provided  the  finery  were  still  unpaid.  The  State 
Paper  Office  has  preserved  these  testimonies  against 
the  improvidence  of  the  court. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  occasion  of  the  creation  of 
the  prince  was  taken  advantage  of,  in  order  to  ask 
for  various  favours.  One  of  the  petitioners  is  Avis, 
Lady  Cooke,  who  writes  to  Lord  Salisbury  the  de- 
tails of  a  domestic  incident  which  had  touched  her 
ladyship  nearly.     There  was  a  certain  fascinating  Mr. 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  379 

Fotherby,'son  of  the  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  who 
had  wooed  and  won  her  daughter.  "  Her  worth  and 
her  birth  are  much  degraded  by  that  match,"  wrote 
the  proud  Lady  Cooke,  who  had  small  regard  for  the 
son  of  an  archdeacon.  If  the  Prince  of  Wales  would 
but  make  him  a  knight,  she  might  then  look  upon 
her  son-in-law  with  complacency  ! 

It  was  at  the  creation  of  the  prince  that  his  brother 
Charles,  then  ten  years  old,  made  his  graceful  d6but 
among  the  little  lords  and  ladies  and  noble  young 
ballet  dancers  who  figured  on  that  occasion.  He 
had  had  a  slowly  successful  struggle  for  the  life  which 
it  had  been  well  for  him  had  he  lost  early.  The 
little  Duke  of  Albany,  as  Charles  was  styled  in  his 
youth,  remained  in  Scotland  a  year  after  the  royal 
family  had  left  for  England.  Lord  Fife,  his  guard- 
ian, transmitted  bulletins  of  his  health.  One  of  them 
says  :  "Your  sacred  Majesty's  most  noble  son,  Duke 
Charles,  continues,  praised  be  God,  in  good  health, 
good  courage,  and  lofty  mind ;  although  yet  weak  in 
body,  he  is  beginning  to  speak  some  words.  He  is 
far  better,  as  yet,  with  his  mind  than  with  his  body 
and  feet ;  but  I  hope  in  God  he  shall  be  all  well  and 
princely,  worthy  of  your  Majesty,  as  his  Grace  is 
judged  to  be  by  all,  very  like  in  lineaments  to  your 
royal  person."  In  the  summer  of  1604,  as  the  duke 
made  no  further  progress,  the  queen  despatched  Doc- 
tor Atkins  (with  a  fee  of  50J.  per  day)  to  Scotland,  and 
with  him  one  Edward  Phillipps,  an  apothecary,  who 
had  an  honorarium  of  ;£40.  The  physician,  in  July, 
wrote  to  Cecil,  that  he  had  found  Prince  Charles  re- 
covering, and  that  he  was  beginning  to  walk  alone, 
which  (though  now  four  years  old)  he  had  never  done 


380        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

before.  After  he  had  perished  on  the  scaffold,  wise 
folk  in  the  north  thought  nature  had  been  unwilling 
that  he  should  live.  Equally  wise  folk,  when  Prince 
Henry  died  early,  remarked  that  it  could  not  well 
have  been  otherwise,  seeing  that  he  never  cast  his 
first  teeth  —  a  sure  sign  of  death,  sooner  or  later ! 

Five  hundred  pounds  sterling  were  sent  to  Scot- 
land to  defray  the  charges  of  bringing  the  poor  little 
duke,  who  could  neither  walk  nor  talk,  to  England. 
He  arrived  in  London  in  better  condition  than  was 
expected ;  and  in  the  State  Paper  Office  lies  the  sol- 
emn "  discharge,  for  Alexander  Seaton,  Lord  Fyvie, 
Chancellor  of  Scotland,  of  the  custody  of  the  Duke 
of  York,  with  attestation  of  his  being  in  perfect 
health."  When  taken  to  Whitehall,  there  seems  to 
have  been  some  difficulty  in  providing  him  with  quar- 
ters, since  ;£20  yearly  was  accorded  to  Sir  Thomas 
Knyvet  for  vacating  his  lodgings  in  the  palace,  in 
order  to  accommodate  the  weak,  deformed,  and  stam- 
mering prince,  who,  in  course  of  time,  was  carried 
from  that  palace  to  the  throne,  and,  in  a  succeeding 
period,  from  the  throne  back  to  that  palace,  there  to 
be  slain. 

For  the  weakness  in  the  boy's  ankles,  the  king 
prescribed  irons ;  for  the  unintelligible  attempts  at 
speaking,  he  would  have  had  the  prince's  tongue  cut. 
For  the  misshapen  legs,  even  his  brother  Henry  is 
said  to  have  had  his  joke,  intimating  that  Charles 
might  be  appointed  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
that  in  such  case  he  would  be  able  to  conceal  his  ill- 
made  limbs  beneath  his  robes.  But  Charles  fell  into 
more  tender  hands  than  these,  and  Lady  Carey,  who 
had  the  charge  of  him,  rendering  to  him  mother's 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  381 

service  which  he  had  not  from  his  mother,  by  care 
and  wisdom  and  love  born  of  her  office,  made  of  that 
poor  "  Prince  Riquet  with  the  tuft "  as  fair  and 
straight  and  well-spoken  a  youth  as  the  fairy  made 
of  the  prince  by  power  of  able  woman's  magic. 

With  the  new  year  1606,  Charles,  who  brought 
with  him  to  Whitehall  the  titles  of  Duke  of  Albany, 
Marquis  of  Ormond,  Earl  of  Ross,  and  Lord  Ardman- 
noch,  placed  an  English  title  before  them  all.  "  See," 
writes  Carleton  to  Chamberlain,  in  the  January  of 
that  year,  "little  Charles  is  made  great  Duke  of 
York." 

Previous  to  this  advancement,  the  duke's  house- 
hold was  arranged.  Indeed,  as  early  as  November, 
1604,  a  warrant  was  issued  to  Lord  Suffolk  to  admin- 
ister the  usual  oath  to  Peter  Young,  Almoner  of 
Scotland,  overseer  of  the  household  of  "  little  Charles," 
and  guardian  of  his  education.  The  salary  of  ;£200 
attached  to  the  office  was  not  long  enjoyed  by  Peter. 
In  the  following  year,  Thomas  Murray  was  appointed 
to  be  the  duke's  "  paedagogue,"  with  the  mastership 
of  Christ's  Hospital,  Sherborne,  and  a  promised  pen- 
sion of  two  hundred  marks  for  life.  Murray  was 
otherwise  paid  by  a  curious  process.  For  instance, 
in  1609,  a  grant  was  made  to  him  and  others  of 
;£  1 0,000,  consisting  of  debts  due  to  the  deceased 
Duke  of  Somerset,  Lord  Hussey,  and  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  attainted  persons ;  and  Murray  and  his 
copartners  were  authorised  to  enforce  payment. 

Meanwhile,  as  in  the  case  of  Prince  Henry,  more 
money  was  expended  on  jewels  for  Duke  Charles  than 
for  books.  Besides  these  outlays,  warrants  were 
issued    granting  to    Lady    Carey    £600   yearly   for 


382        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

apparel  and  linen  for  the  duke,  and  ^£50  for  him  to 
distribute  in  gifts  and  rewards.  In  learning  he  was 
apparently,  but  perhaps  not  actually,  less  precocious 
than  his' brother.  "Sweet,  sweet  father,"  he  writes, 
"i  learn  to  decline  substantives  and  adjectives.  Give 
me  your  blessing."  In  his  ninth  year,  an  age  when 
Arthur  of  Winchester  wrote,  and  Henry  of  Stirling 
was  supposed  to  write,  excellent  Latin  letters,  Charles 
says,  in  a  Latin  note  to  the  latter,  "To  enjoy  your 
company,  to  ride  with  you,  to  hunt  with  you,  will 
yield  to  me  supreme  pleasure.  I  am  now  reading  the 
*  Conversations  of  Erasmus,'  from  which,  I  am  sure, 
I  can  learn  both  the  purity  of  the  Latin  tongue  and 
elegance  of  behaviour."  This  last  phrase  was  prob- 
ably Murray's  opinion  in  Murray's  own  words.  For 
by  this  time  it  had  become  a  recognised  fact  that  the 
pedagogue  of  a  prince  was  the  actual  writer  of  his 
letters.  'There  is  in  the  Bodleian  library  a  docu- 
ment, from  the  hand  of  King  James  himself,  addressed 
to  Murray,  in  which  that  sovereign  says  to  his  son's 
tutor  :  "  Considering  the  pains  and  travails  employed 
by  you,  not  only  in  the  careful  education  of  our 
dearly  beloved  son  the  prince,  and  instructing  him  in 
all  kinds  of  good  learning,  according  to  the  capacity 
of  his  tender  years,  but  also  in  penning  and  framing 
his  missive  letters  in  divers  languages,  directed  either 
to  ourself  or  foreign  princes,  we  are  willing  both  to 
testify  our  acceptance  of  this  your  service,  formerly 
done,  and  to  encourage  you  with  the  like  faithfulness 
and  diligence  to  prosecute  the  same.  Therefore,  we 
have  thought  good  to  command  you  to  continue  the 
penning  and  writing  of  all  such  missives  as  shall  be 
directed  by  our  dearly  beloved  son  the  prince,  in  any 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  383 

of  his  affairs  within  or  without  our  realms ;  giving 
and  granting  unto  you,  to  this  effect,  the  custody 
and  keeping  of  our  said  son's  signet,  with  such  allow- 
ance as  shall  be  thought  reasonable  and  fit,  and  all 
other  privileges  and  preeminences  belonging  there- 
unto." 

This  is  a  pleasant  insight  into  the  inner  chambers 
of  quasi-learned  young  princes !  Henceforward  we 
can  only  look  for  their  true  sentiments  when  they 
write  simple  English,  under  their  own  hand.  As, 
for  example,  when  Charles  addressed  a  note  to  his 
lively  mother,  then  rendered  quiet  by  the  gout.  "  I 
wish  from  my  heart,"  says  the  boy  whom  she  espe- 
cially loved,  and  who  loved  her,  "that  I  might  help 
to  find  a  remedy  to  your  disease ;  the  which  I  must 
bear  the  more  patiently,  because  it  is  the  sign  of  a 
long  life.  But,  I  must  for  many  causes  be  sorry; 
and  specially  because  it  is  troublesome  to  you,  and 
has  deprived  me  of  your  most  comfortable  sight,  and 
of  many  good  dinners,  the  which  I  hope,  by  God's 
grace,  shortly  to  enjoy !  "  There  spoke  the  loving 
and  the  hungry  boy,  and  he  adds,  in  the  spirit  of  one 
who  had  some  fun  in  him,  grave  as  he  looked  in 
youth  and  manhood,  "When  it  shall  please  you  to 
give  me  leave  to  see  you,  it  may  be  I  shall  give  you 
some  good  recipe,  which  either  shall  heal  you,  or 
make  you  laugh."  And  then  kissing  the  "most 
sacred  hands"  of  his  "most  worthy  mistress,"  as  he 
styles  his  mother,  he  subscribes  himself,  rather  for- 
mally, her  "most  humble  and  obedient  servant, 
Charles." 

The  brother  princes  are  not  often  to  be  met  with 
together,  —  save   in   the   notice   taken  of  them  by 


384       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Others,  as  by  a  flatterer  who  eulogised  the  piety  and 
promise  of  Henry,  adding  of  Charles,  "There  is  no 
great  prince  in  Christendom  that  doth  not  wish  him- 
self such  a  son."  The  Duke  of  York  was  occasionally 
housed  in  Sir  Christopher  Hatton's  old  residence  at 
Holdenby,  which  had  been  purchased  for  him  by  the 
king,  who  had  appointed  the  wife  of  Sir  Edward 
Coke  to  the  office  of  keeper.  In  his  lodgings  at 
Whitehall  he  had  been  in  some  peril,  as  early  as 
1605,  just  previous  to  the  "plot,"  after  which  one  of 
his  servants,  Agnes  Fortun,  swore  that  Thomas 
Percy  came  to  the  duke's  lodgings,  about  the  ist  of 
November,  "inquiring  the  way  to  his  chamber,  and 
as  to  the  hours  at  which  he  rode  out,  and  as  to  how 
he  was  attended."  The  object  was  to  gain  Charles's 
person,  not  his  life.  In  after  years  the  "plot,"  in  its 
consequences,  perilled  the  Hfe  of  his  brother,  if  we 
may  credit  the  fact  registered  at  the  State  Paper 
Office,  that  in  the  spring  of  1608,  Francis  Tillotson, 
himself  a  priest,  gave  information  to  Lord  Danvers, 
that  a  conspiracy  was  forming  in  four  different  coun- 
tries, —  at  Rome,  under  one  Parson ;  in  Madrid, 
under  Cresswell ;  by  Fludd,  in  Lisbon ;  and  by  Bald- 
win, in  the  Low  Countries,  —  the  object  of  which 
was  to  revenge  on  Prince  Henry  and  his  father  the 
death  of  Garnet,  executed  for  his  participation  in 
the  Gunpowder  Plot.  The  means  to  be  employed 
consisted  in  the  despatching  of  five  disguised  Jesuits 
to  England,  to  assassinate  the  sovereign  and  the 
heir  apparent. 

Amid  plots  or  rumours  of  plots,  the  chief  incident 
which  marked  the  short  career  of  Henry,  as  Prince 
of  Wales,  was  the  important  matter  of  his  marriage. 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  385 

Wilson,  when  noticing  the  endeavours  of  the  king  to 
win  a  Spanish  princess  for  the  elder  son,  remarks 
that,  "After  some  traverses,  it  was  found  that  there 
was  more  time  lost  than  ground  gotten ;  for  princes 
in  treaties  lie  at  the  snaps,  and  the  most  backward 
often  gets  the  better  of  it.  But  the  king  being  not 
so  hot  then  for  this,  as  he  was  for  the  other  son  with 
another  sister  (the  eldest  being  matched  into  France), 
made  a  quicker  and  more  honourable  retreat." 

France  was  more  ready  to  offer  a  bride,  in  the 
person  of  "  Madame  Christine,"  second  daughter  to 
the  French  king,  who  promised  with  her  a  dowry  of 
fifty  thousand  crowns,  and  ultimately  bade,  with  the 
lady,  twenty  thousand  more.  In  these  affairs,  Henry 
manifested  nothing  of  the  ardour  of  young  Arthur,  — 
the  probability  being  that  he  found  "metal  more 
attractive  "  at  home,  or  certainly  might  have  found, 
for  it  was  cast  in  his  path  on  purpose  to  draw  upon 
it  his  princely  regard.  He  was  simply  passive,  and 
yet  acute  in  detecting  the  littleness  of  his  father's 
mind;  as  when,  in  161 2,  he  wrote:  "The  cause 
which  first  induced  your  Majesty  to  proceed  in  this 
proposition  by  your  ambassador,  was  the  hope  which 
the  Duke  de  Bouillon  gave  your  Majesty  of  breaking 
their  other  match  with  Spain.  If  the  continuance  of 
this  treaty  hold  only  on  that  hope,  and  not  upon  any 
desire  to  effect  a  match  with  the  second  daughter,  in 
my  weak  opinion  I  hold  that  it  stand  more  with  your 
Majesty's  honour  to  stay  your  ambassador  from  mov- 
ing it  any  more,  than  to  go  on  with  it." 

Rochester  joked  upon  the  extreme  youth  of  the 
young  lady,  wished  well  she  were  not  the  acerba 
virgOy  unripe  maiden  that  she  was,  but  he  tried  to 


386        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

render  the  Prince  of  Wales  an  active  wooer  of  the 
French  bride  of  nine  years  old.  There  is  a  mournful 
tone  in  which  the  prince,  who  was  twice  that  age, 
replies,  in  probably  the  last  letter  which  he  ever 
penned :  **  I  choose  rather  to  bewray  the  weakness 
of  my  judgment  by  obedience  than  that  his  Majesty 
should  not  find  in  me  a  willingness  to  do  my  best 
endeavours  for  the  satisfying  of  all  his  command- 
ments." This  obedience,  in  a  matter  where  the 
heart  now,  and  future  happiness  were  concerned,  was 
perhaps  carried  beyond  its  proper  limits ;  and  such 
yielding  was  not  characteristic  of  the  prince  in  all 
things.  Not  that  the  prince  was  the  rough,  soldierly 
young  fellow  for  which  some  have  taken  him.  Lord 
Campbell  suspects  (in  his  "  Life  of  Lord  Ellesmere  ") 
that  it  was  well  for  our  liberties  that  Henry  died 
young,  "for,"  says  his  lordship,  "if  he  had  survived, 
and  shown  the  genius  for  war  of  which  he  had  given 
manifestation,  such  battles  as  Edgehill,  Newbury, 
and  Naseby  would  probably  have  had  a  different 
result,  and  the  Long  Parliament  would  have  been 
the  last  that  would  ever  have  assembled  in  England." 
But  I  think  that  Henry's  martial  character  was 
greatly  the  result  of  his  mother's  influence,  exer- 
cised in  that  direction  because  the  king  hated  the 
entire  paraphernalia  of  war.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  young  prince  possessed  a  decided  taste  of  his 
own  for  serious  men  and  serious  pursuits.  When 
he  heard  Williams  preach  at  Newmarket,  he  "took 
great  notice  of  him,"  says  Hackett,  "as  an  honour 
to  Wales,  and  gave  him  his  princely  word  that  he 
would  reward  him  after  the  weight  of  his  worth." 
Certainly  he  had  a  heart  for  greatness  in  his  fellow 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  387 

men  —  he  could  not  comprehend  how  his  sire  could 
keep  captive  in  a  cage  so  rare  a  bird  as  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  Nor  was  this  the  only  point  on  which  he 
differed  with  his  sire,  or  on  the  subject  of  the  king's 
household.  "  I  have  heard,"  says  Doctor  Goodman, 
"  that  the  prince  did  sometimes  abuse  the  king's  ser- 
vants, which  the  king  took  ill."  And  again,  says 
the  old  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  "  I  confess  that  the 
prince  did  sometimes  pry  into  the  king's  actions, 
and  a  little  dislike  them.  A  knight  told  me  a  tale 
that  he  was  privily  sent  by  Prince  Henry  to  see 
how  the  royal  navy  was  ordered ;  what  defects  there 
were,  and  to  be  a  spy  upon  them ;  and  no  doubt 
but  he  had  others  in  the  signet  office."  The  old 
prelate  believed  the  young  prince  "had  heroical 
intentions ; "  but  these  were  exactly  the  sort  of 
intentions  which  the  king  most  heartily  disliked ; 
and  accordingly,  the  attendants  on  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  who  were  suspected  of  having  prompted  him 
to  this  course,  were  dismissed  from  his  household. 

The  rules  for  the  ordering  of  Prince  Henry's  house- 
hold, after  his  creation  as  Prince  of  Wales,  when,  I 
may  mention  by  the  way,  —  to  be  assured  that  he 
was  in  truth  the  sovereign  prince  he  was  said  to 
be,  —  he  caused  all  tenants  of  land  within  the  terri- 
tory, whence  a  portion  of  his  revenues  was  derived, 
to  renew  their  leases,  paying  the  customary  fines  — 
these  rules,  I  say,  regarding  his  household,  form  a 
good-sized  pamphlet  in  themselves,  but  certain  ex- 
tracts may  serve  to  show  their  character  as  well  as 
reflect  something  of  that  of  the  times.  For  example, 
all  ragged  and  unsweet  persons  are  warned  from  his 
vicinity.     His  gentlemen  are  to  see  him   "decently 


388       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

arrayed  and  disarrayed  ; "  **  unseemly  speech  "  in  his 
presence  is  forbidden,  and  express  prohibition  made 
that  any  of  his  gentlemen  carry  him  out  of  the 
house  without  leave  of  the  comptroller,  Sir  Thomas 
Chaloner. 

The  grooms  of  the  chamber  are  reminded  not  to 
come  into  the  prince's  sight  "with  their  doublets 
unbuttoned  or  their  hose  untied."  The  grooms  or 
the  gentlemen  are  ordered  to  "  lie  nightly  on  a  pallet 
in  the  privy  chamber,"  and  to  take  care  that  the 
chambers  "  be  strewed,  aired,  and  made  clean  before 
the  prince  comes  out  of  his  chamber."  Then,  when 
he  goes  abroad,  his  chambers  are  to  be  locked  till  he 
returns ;  when  at  study  intrusion  is  forbidden  ;  clean- 
liness of  speech  and  conduct  is  insisted  on ;  fear  of 
infection  is  impressed,  and,  if  the  gentlemen-ushers 
find  any  of  the  servants  or  pages  without  beds,  they 
are  ordered  to  billet  them  "  in  the  towns  nearest  at 
hand."  Other  persons  ordered  to  sleep  out  are 
"such  as  have  not  shift  of  apparel  and  linen."  They 
were  only  permitted  to  make  the  house  "noisome" 
in  the  daytime.  Some  of  the  rules  serve  as  proofs 
that  the  interior  of  a  palace  could  only  be  kept 
"  sweet "  by  the  most  stringent  orders ;  and  that 
gambling  and  noisy  sports  were  not  uncommon  is 
shown  in  the  commands  to  the  authorised  officials 
to  suppress  them  whenever  detected. 

The  prince's  dinner  is  ordered  to  be  served  at 
half-past  ten ;  his  supper  at  half-past  five,  and  a 
comfortable  privacy  is  secured  for  him  by  an  order 
for  the  ejection  of  all  unemployed  persons  from  the 
apartment.  No  man  below  the  degree  of  "qual- 
ity "  could  pass  the  wicket  bearing  his  sword.     The 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  389 

"pleb"  was  compelled  to  leave  his  dagger  or  rapier 
with  the  porter,  who  possessed  a  very  large  amount 
of  authority.  There  is  a  symptom  of  early  going  to 
bed  in  the  injunction  to  close  the  gates  "without 
fail "  at  nine  o'clock  at  night ;  and  the  porters  were 
to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  that  none  of  the  household 
shirked  a  daily  attendance  at  prayers,  twice.  Every 
embezzlement  of  kitchen  stuff  is  provided  against, 
and  a  curious  item  has  respect  to  certain  daughters 
of  mischief,  threatening  the  dismissal  of  all  persons 
who  draw  them  to  "  haunt  about  the  stables,  that  are 
not  by  sufficient  warrant  to  be  there ; "  adding  that 
"all  night-walkers"  and  other  evil  persons  specified 
shall  be  dismissed,  "except  there  be  appearance  by 
their  submission  of  amendment."  There  is  a  special 
word  of  warning,  too,  against  "busybodies ;  "  the  poor 
are  to  be  fed  from  the  remnants  at  the  various  tables, 
and  if  any  official  in  the  house  dare  to  omit  taking 
the  sacrament  at  least  four  times  in  the  year,  he  is 
forthwith  to  be  dismissed,  twelve  times  in  the  year 
being  the  rule  recommended  to  the  house.  As  for 
the  seats  in  his  Highness's  chapel,  an  officer  is  to 
have  regard  that  such  seats  "be  not  pestered  and 
taken  up  by  men  of  mean  quality." 

The  scale  of  prices  for  provisions  furnished  by  the 
purveyors  seems  to  have  been  nearly  a  fixed  or  only 
a  slightly  sliding  scale.  "An  ox  should  weigh  600 
lb.  the  four  quarters,  and  cost  commonly  £,^  loj.  or 
thereabouts."  Respecting  wages,  the  salary  of  Sir 
Thomas  Chaloner,  the  head  of  the  household, 
amounted  only  to  £,66  13J.  d^d.  yearly,  with  his 
diet.  Of  gentlemen  of  the  privy  chamber,  ordinary 
and  extraordinary,  the  prince  had   forty-nine.     The 


390       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

wages  of  the  pages  of  the  bedchamber  were  only 
one-third  less  than  those  of  Sir  Thomas  Chaloner, 
and  they  wore  livery,  too.  The  highest  salary  was 
that  of  Doctor  Hammond,  and  of  two  yeomen,  Wil- 
son and  Bower,  who  had  ;£ioo  per  annum.  The 
prince  awarded  to  his  librarian  less  than  to  his 
pages,  namely,  £,'^0  per  year,  with  no  additions, 
while  Walter  Meek,  his  barber,  received  ;£20  yearly, 
with  ;£48  13.?.  4d.  board  wages;  and  £26  13^-.  4^. 
yearly  for  livery.     But  the  higher  officers  had  fees. 

Despite  rigid  regulations.  Prince  Henry  maintained 
a  brilliant  and  a  crowded  court  at  St.  James's.  From 
the  commencement,  he  had  not  less  than  from  four  to 
five  hundred  officers  and  servants  —  and  more  of  the 
nobility  resorted  thither  than  were  required  to  do 
homage  to  the  king  at  Whitehall.  The  royal  father's 
jealousy  at  this  circumstance  was  manifested  by  an 
expression  alluding  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  —  burying 
him  alive.  Figuratively,  such  was  the  case,  or  was 
soon  likely  to  become  so.  The  queen  had  caused  her 
husband  to  fear  rather  than  to  love  her  elder  son  — 
the  warmth  of  her  own  love  being  shed  upon  her 
younger  boy,  the  Duke  of  York.  But  Henry  was 
the  hope  of  the  nation,  and  the  idol  of  the  courtiers. 
On  one  occasion  when  king  and  prince  left  the  downs 
at  Newmarket  by  two  separate  routes,  all  the  persons 
of  rank  accompanied  the  latter.  When  James  saw 
that  he  was  followed  only  by  ordinary  servants,  he 
is  said  to  have  burst  into  tears.  James  may  have 
remembered  the  remark  of  a  Welsh  gentleman  to  his 
son  that  there  were  forty  thousand  men  in  Wales 
ready  to  serve  the  prince  against  any  king  in  Christen- 
dom.    On  hearing  the  remark,  the  jealous  sovereign 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  391 

had  hastily  asked,  "In  what  service?"  The  ready 
prince,  to  assuage  his  father's  fears,  as  hastily  replied, 
"  In  cutting  off  the  heads  of  forty  thousand  leeks  !  " 
But  it  is  not  said  that  James  smiled  at  the  moderate 
joke. 

The  prince  was  perhaps  driven  into  presenting 
himself  in  strong  contrasting  lights,  unfavourable 
to  his  father.  Unprincipled  politicians  and  courtiers 
have  found  this  an  easy  task,  when  it  suited  them, 
to  play  off  the  heir  against  the  sovereign.  So,  at  a 
chase,  provokingly  interrupted  by  a  butcher's  dog 
springing  at  the  weary  stag,  as  he  stumbled  on  the 
highroad,  and  there  killing  him,  when  prince  and 
courtiers  came  up  and  saw  the  ignoble  spectacle, 
the  latter  intimated  that  such  a  sight  would  have 
made  the  prince's  father  swear  in  a  way  intolerable 
to  human  ear.  "  Tush ! "  exclaimed  Henry,  riding 
away,  "  all  the  pleasure  in  the  world  is  not  worth  an 
oath." 

This  gentlemanlike  principle  he  observed  in  prac- 
tice ;  and  it  is  further  worthy  of  observing  of  one  so 
young,  that  (according  to  Sir  Charles  Cornwallis)  he 
had  formed  a  design  to  select  the  most  learned  and 
experienced  of  his  chaplains,  whose  counsels  in  all 
matters  of  conscience  he  had  determined  to  follow. 
This  resolution  was  only  impeded  by  his  early  death. 

If,  in  some  respects,  this  young  Prince  of  Wales 
has  been  overrated,  —  the  promise  he  gave,  and  the 
hopes  formed  of  him,  having  been  taken  as  great 
accompUshed  realities,  —  on  the  other  hand,  in  the 
few  cases  where  there  was  trial  of  his  judgment,  he 
came  off  with  credit  to  his  discretion.  His  royal 
parents  did  not  afford  him  the  example  of  a  couple 


392        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

well-regulated  in  their  tempers.  Bishop  Goodman 
presents  us  with  ocular  testimony  on  this  head ;  and 
it  is  when  the  angry  pair  were  irritating  each  other 
that  their  son  appears  in  the  gracious  character  of  a 
peacemaker.  This  is  manifested  by  a  letter  of  the 
young  reconciler,  in  1610.  The  king  had  been  suf- 
fering at  Royston,  from  a  sore  foot.  The  queen,  at 
Greenwich,  had  written  a  note  to  her  husband,  with- 
out noticing  that  important  circumstance,  and  had 
omitted  to  reply  to  a  subsequent  note  addressed  to  her 
by  James.  The  latter  bade  the  prince  inform  her  of 
his  displeasure,  and  tell  her  of  his  fears  that  she  was 
"  returning  to  her  old  bias. "  Henry  of  Stirling  re- 
plies :  "  Her  answer  was  that  *  either  she  had  written 
or  dreamed  it ;  and,  upon  supposing  so,  had  told  first 
my  Lord  Hay,  and  next  Sir  Thomas  Somerset,  that 
she  had  written.*  I  dare  not  reply  as  you  directed, 
*  that  your  Majesty  was  afraid  lest  she  should  return 
to  her  old  bias,  for  fear  such  a  word  might  have  set 
her  in  the  way  of  it,  and,  besides,  make  me  a  peace- 
breaker,  which  I  would  eschew.  Otherwise,  most 
happy  when  favoured  by  your  Majesty's  command- 
ments,' "  etc. 

The  alliance  of  a  prince  with  such  present  reputa- 
tion and  hopes  of  future  greatness,  like  Henry,  was 
especially  coveted  by  France,  who,  as  before  noticed, 
offered  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Christine,  with  fifty 
thousand  crowns  in  it,  to  the  heir  of  England.  On 
small  eagerness  being  manifested  to  accept  this  offer, 
France  condescended  to  make  the  dowry  more 
acceptable,  by  adding  an  additional  twenty  thousand 
crowns.  Henry  seems  to  have  been  passive  in  the 
matter,  though  some  writers  describe  him  as  eager 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  393 

for  this  union.  Of  one  fact  we  are  assured,  that, 
having  little  desire  to  wed  with  a  Romanist  lady,  he 
at  least  wished  she  might  be  very  young,  as  there 
would  then  be  the  greater  hopes  of  her  conversion. 
The  match  went  off,  in  consequence  of  the  protracted 
negotiations,  Henry  himself  dying  before  a  satis- 
factory conclusion  had  been  arrived  at. 

Meanwhile,  his  father  being  concerned  in  providing 
him  with  a  consort,  the  prince,  if  report  may  be 
trusted,  was  occupied  in  establishing  himself  in  power. 
In  this  case  we  come  upon  a  passage  of  his  life  in 
which  he  really  resembled  that  hero  of  Agincourt, 
with  whom  Ben  Jonson  rather  rashly  likened  him  — 

"  That  other  thunderbolt  of  war, 
Henry  the  Fifth,  to  whom  in  face  you  are 
So  like,  as  Fate  would  have  you  so  in  worth." 

This  similarity  consists  in  the  dissension  which  is  said 
to  have  arisen,  on  the  application  of  the  prince,  in  the 
year  161 1,  when  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  for 
authority  to  preside  at  the  Privy  Council.  This  was, 
in  fact,  to  ask  to  divide  the  government,  and  to  invest 
the  son  with  the  actual  or  the  delegated  power  of  the 
father.  The  application,  if  made,  as  it  is  asserted  to 
have  been,  by  Johnston  the  historian,  did  not  succeed. 
Sir  Robert  Cecil  is  reported  to  have  intimated  to  the 
prince  that  the  failure  was  owing  to  the  opposition  of 
Rochester;  and  it  is  further  said  that  this  report, 
entirely  false  in  itself,  renewed  a  hatred  for  Roches- 
ter, which  had  commenced  years  before  at  a  quarrel 
at  tennis,  which  had  issued  in  blows,  and  which  was 
embittered  by  circumstances  connected  with  another 
phase  of  the  prince's  character. 


394       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

The  family  of  the  Howards,  and  that  of  Devereux, 
Earl  of  Essex,  had  rendered  services  to  the  mother 
of  James,  which  that  monarch  had  partly  recompensed 
by  creating  two  brothers  of  the  Howards  respectively 
earls  —  of  Northampton  and  Suffolk.  The  infamous 
daughter  of  the  latter,  James  had  married  to  the  Earl 
of  Essex,  when  both  of  them  were  children.  Essex 
had  been  the  playfellow  of  Prince  Henry,  and  had 
broken  his  head  with  a  racket,  because  the  prince 
had  called  him  "son  of  a  traitor."  The  prince  is 
said,  in  the  "Aulicus  Coquinariae,"  to  have  "made 
love  to  the  Countess  of  Essex,  before  any  other  lady 
living."  This  is  stated  as  a  "notorious  truth  ;  "  and 
D'Ewes  furnishes  additional  testimony  in  the  alleged 
fact  that  the  Earl  of  Northampton,  Lady  Essex's 
uncle,  had  invited  her  to  be  forward  with  the  prince, 
and  to  anticipate  him  in  demonstrations  of  affection. 
Now,  it  is  well  known,  whatever  else  be  true  or  false, 
that  Rochester  won  the  heart,  and  afterward  obtained 
the  divorced  hand  of  Lady  Essex,  and  that  they  both 
became  subsequently  known  as  the  Earl  and  Countess 
of  Somerset  —  the  poisoners  of  Sir  Thomas  Overbury. 

Lady  Essex  had  a  brother.  Lord  Howard  de  Wal- 
den,  touching  whom  D'Ewes  says,  "that  Prince  Henry 
disdained  that  there  should  be  any,  the  least  notion 
of  marriage,  between  Theophilus,  Lord  Howard  de 
Walden,  the  eldest  son  of  Thomas,  Earl  of  Suffolk, 
with  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  his  sister."  Bishop 
Goodman,  however,  remarks  that,  "as  to  the  report 
that  Prince  Henry  should  say  that  he  would  not  have 
one  of  the  Howards,  I  do  not  remember  that  any  one 
of  the  Howards  did  displease  him."  Certainly  Lady 
Essex  did  not,  till  she  let  her  heart  rest  on  a  man 


THE  BROTHER- PRINCES  OF  WALES  395 

whom  the  prince  detested ;  and  from  that  time  how- 
ever little  connection  there  may  be  between  the  two 
subjects,  the  sunlight  of  the  prince's  life  was  quenched. 

In  the  month  of  September,  161 2,  when  Goodman 
was  beneficed  at  Stapleford  Abbotts,  Essex,  he  went 
with  others  to  the  king's  house  at  Havering,  in  the 
adjoining  parish,  to  attend  divine  service  there.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  was  present  with  the  king.  "  Many 
of  our  brethren,"  says  Goodman,  "the  neighbouring 
ministers,  came  to  hear  the  sermon  before  the  king ; 
and  some  of  us  did  say,  looking  upon  Prince  Henry, 
and  finding  that  his  countenance  was  not  so  cheerful 
as  it  was  wont  to  be,  but  had  heavy,  darkish  looks, 
with  a  kind  of  mixture  of  melancholy  and  choler,  — 
some  of  us  did  then  say  that  certainly  he  had  some 
great  distemper  m  his  body,  which  we  thought  might 
proceed  from  eating  of  raw  fruit,  peaches,  musk 
melons,  etc.  Awhile  after,  we  heard  that  he  was 
sick." 

Soon  after  this  occurrence,  the  Prince  Palatine 
arrived  in  England  to  wed  with  the  Princess  Eliza- 
beth. The  Prince  of  Wales  exerted  himself  inde- 
fatigably  in  rendering  agreeable  the  sojourn  of  the 
Palatine  in  England,  —  undergoing  great  fatigue  in 
the  performance  of  that  duty.  On  the  last  Sunday 
in  October,  16 12,  the  two  princes  dined  with  the  king 
in  his  privy  chamber  at  Whitehall.  It  was  noted  by 
Chamberlain,  in  a  letter  to  Winwood,  that  both  the 
princes  sat  at  dinner  bareheaded.  The  repast  was 
not  yet  concluded,  when  Henry  suddenly  turned 
pale,  became  ill,  and  was  removed  in  a  fainting  con- 
dition to  St.  James's.  There  he  lay  the  whole  week, 
gradually  becoming  worse,  unvisited, — but  inquired 


396       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

after  by  king  and  queen,  too  grief-stricken  or  too 
fearful  of  infection  to  do  more,  and  at  length  in  such 
imminent  danger,  that  on  the  succeeding  Sunday  the 
revel  and  play  that  should  have  made  Whitehall 
merry  were  deferred ;  and  Butler,  the  ^Esculapius 
of  his  age,  was  summoned  to  aid  his  court  colleagues 
in  restoring  the  prince  to  health.  "Butler's  eye," 
says  Fuller,  "was  excellent  at  the  instant  discovery 
of  a  cadaverous  face  on  which  he  would  not  lavish 
any  art.  This  made  him,  at  the  first  sight  of  sick 
Prince  Henry,  to  get  himself  out  of  sight."  It  was 
with  extreme  reluctance  that  Butler  yielded  to  the 
proposal  of  the  other  physicians  that  the  prince 
should  be  bled.  Henry  bore  his  sufferings  bravely, 
not  desiring  life,  he  said,  if  health  were  not  to  be  its 
companion.  Health  assuredly  had  not  been  vouch- 
safed him  during  this  last  year,  but  the  cause  lay 
greatly  in  himself,  indulging,  as  he  did,  in  bathing  in 
the  Thames,  at  Richmond,  after  supper,  and  that  not 
a  light  one ;  while  the  imprudent  young  prince  him- 
self had  been  suffering  for  months,  from  cough  and 
gradual  decline. 

Prince  Henry  died  on  the  5th  of  November.  He 
made  a  comfortable  end,  says  Goodman,  and  had  no 
suspicion  of  poison.  Raleigh  had  sent  him  a  draught 
or  prescription  which  he  said  would  surely  effect  a 
cure,  unless  the  patient  had  been  unfairly  dealt  with. 
As  his  recovery  did  not  follow  —  for  the  prince  took 
the  medicine  thus  unprofessionally  supplied  —  the 
queen  was  the  first  who  thought  of  poison.  But 
among  the  orthodox  and  loyal  and  masquerading 
crowds  who  thronged  about  the  palace  of  St.  James's 
on  that  "  Guy  Fawkes  night,"  and  indeed  all  over  the 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  397 

land,  there  were  clear-sighted  individuals,  each  look- 
ing through  his  own  spectacles,  and  assigning  accord- 
ingly a  very  sufficient  reason  for  the  prince's  death. 
Among  these  reasons  were :  That  the  nation  had 
failed  to  grieve  deeply  enough  for  the  death  of 
Queen  Elizabeth ;  that  Queen  Anne,  the  prince's 
mother,  was  too  much  addicted  to  favour  papistry ; 
that  the  prince  had  never  cast  his  first  teeth ;  that 
foreign  almanacs  had  foretold  the  falling,  about  this 
time,  of  a  brilliant  star ;  that  a  lunar  rainbow  had 
been  seen,  one  limb  of  which  rested  on  St.  James's 
Palace ;  that  King  James  had  recently  moved  his 
mother's  body  from  Peterborough  to  Westminster, 
and  it  was  well  known  that  when  such  a  circumstance 
occurred,  some  young  member  of  the  deceased  per- 
son's family  was  sure  to  die ;  and,  finally,  the 
Romanists,  on  whose  shoulders  the  Protestants  were 
not  ill-pleased  to  pile  the  responsibility,  asked  one 
another  what  else  could  be  expected,  since  the  Sher- 
borne lands  were  not  restored  to  "the  Church." 
Each  lay  proprietor  of  them  had  come  to  ill.  Raleigh 
had  not  flourished ;  Prince  Henry  had  found  his  shar- 
ing in  them  productive  of  death ;  and  Somerset  ("  I 
maun  ha'e  them  for  Carr,"  said  the  king)  would  not 
find  his  partaking  of  the  plunder  bring  felicity  to  his 
house.  The  curse  of  Bishop  Osmond  would  cleave 
to  all  unlawful  holders  of  the  manor ! 

As  soon  as  the  Prince  of  Wales  died,  the  king 
hastily  left  Whitehall  for  Theobalds.  The  queen 
remained  at  Somerset  House,  but  declined  to  see 
James  before  his  departure,  fearful  of  thereby  "re- 
freshing the  source  of  the  wound."  It  does  not 
appear  that  they  saw  the  dying  boy  after  he  was  in 


398        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

imminent  danger;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  as- 
serted that  his  sister  Elizabeth  went  frequently, 
sometimes  in  disguise,  for  the  purpose  of  penetrat- 
ing to  his  bedside ;  but,  though  access  was  yielded  to 
more  common  people,  her  approach  was  debarred,  on 
the  plea  of  contagion. 

The  autopsy  of  the  body  produced  a  medical  certi- 
ficate to  the  effect  that  the  prince  died  from  natural 
causes.  Wilson  and  others  point  to  the  fact  that  no 
tests  to  try  the  presence  of  poison  were  employed, 
and  they  do  not  scruple  to  darkly  hint  that  the  father 
slew,  or  may  have  slain  or  was  capable  of  slaying,  the 
young  son  whose  life  was  a  rebuke  to  the  vices  of  his 
sire! 

Truly,  never  was  prince  more  possessed  of  the 
popular  heart  than  Henry.  While  James  was  down 
at  Theobalds,  and  Anne  shut  up  in  an  apartment 
tapestried  with  black,  at  Somerset  House,  two  thou- 
sand mourners  followed  the  dead  hope  of  England 
from  St.  James's,  by  Charing  Cross,  to  Westminster. 
Near  the  body  was  carried  the  effigy  of  the  people's 
prince,  under  a  canopy  and  clad  in  his  richest  robes. 
At  this  semblance  of  life,  which  seemed  to  embitter 
death  itself,  many,  as  they  gazed,  burst  into  tears. 
A  long,  sad  ceremony  at  the  grave  was  concluded  by 
a  wailing  note  from  the  herald's  trumpet ;  and  amid 
the  profound  silence  that  ensued,  the  king-at-arms, 
having  proclaimed  the  titles  that  once  distinguished 
the  now  coffined  heir  of  England,  wished  longer  life 
to  his  "  next  brother,  his  Highness  Prince  Charles  "  — 
for  whom  it  had  been  better  had  he  been  entombed 
that  day  with  young  Henry  of  Stirling. 

Defunct  princes  give  liveliness  to  elegiac  poets. 


THE  BROTHER- PRINCES  OF  WALES  399 

and  the  rule  was  encountered  by  no  exception  on  the 
present  occasion.  These  mournful  singers,  however, 
are  generally  not  without  sources  of  consolation ;  and 
now,  though  their  Henry  was  no  more,  the  state  was 
yet  held  up  by  **two  pillars,"  —  Charles  and  Eliza- 
beth ;  and  the  minstrels  were  comforted,  much  more 
so  than  the  servants  of  the  deceased  prince,  whose 
salaries  and  pensions  were  left  for  years  in  arrear. 

Thus  the  marriage  of  Elizabeth  and  the  Prince 
Palatine  had  to  be  deferred,  lest  the  ambassadors  who 
came  to  condole  should  arrive  amid  feasting  and 
dancing.  The  prince's  debts  amounted  to  more  than 
;£^9,ooo,  and  for  these  their  existed  ample  assets. 
His  collection  of  medals  alone  was  valued  at  ^£3,000, 
and  the  records  of  the  State  Paper  Office  show  that 
the  king  "put  money  in  his  pocket."  In  December, 
we  find  that  Parliament  did  not  meet  because  the 
king's  necessities  had  been  relieved  by  an  increase  of 
what  was  at  first  stated  to  be  ;£20,ooo,  but  which 
ultimately  proved  to  be  ^60,000  a  year. 

The  idea  that  the  prince  had  been  poisoned  was 
not  easily  eradicated  from  the  public,  nor  from  a  por- 
tion of  the  governing  mind.  Morgan,  a  schoolmaster 
and  minister  at  Southampton,  said  to  a  certain  Roger 
Morse,  that  '*  before  the  prince's  body  was  cold,  his 
soul  was  frying  on  a  gridiron  in  hell."  Morgan,  on 
being  questioned,  replied  that  he  had  only  said  to  the 
officiously  informing  Roger  that  naughty  people  in 
Spain  had  made  use  of  such  an  observation.  What 
suspicion  the  higher  powers  affected  to  have  was 
directed  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  failing 
there,  against  any  one  whom  it  was  thought  conve- 
nient to  suspect.     Coke  was  not  idle  in  the  matter. 


400        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

On  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Turner,  and  the  persons  of 
higher  rank  implicated  in  the  murder  of  Overbury, 
Coke  intimated  that  he  knew  more  than  he  chose  to 
tell  them  of  evil  practices  with  regard  to  Prince 
Henry ;  but  this  was,  perhaps,  uttered  only  to  preju- 
dice the  case  of  the  poisoners.  For  three  or  four 
years  subsequent  to  the  death  of  the  prince  there  was 
no  lack  of  witnesses  ready  to  tender  information  ;  and 
this  even  was  made  to  implicate  an  honest  Romanist 
pastry  cook,  one  Sarah  Saul,  who  for  eighteen  years 
had  kept  house  in  High  Holborn,  with  her  husband, 
Edwin  Saul,  and  had  never  before  got  into  trouble. 
It  appears  that  on  May-day,  1612,  the  prince  had 
gone  maying  up  to  Highgate,  had  caroused  there, 
and  had  become  naturally  and  deservedly  ill,  in  con- 
sequence. All  that  spring  and  summer  his  health 
had  declined,  and  he  died  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
national  deliverance.  It  was  concluded  that  Sarah 
Saul  might  have  been  employed  to  deal  with  him ; 
and  in  November,  16 15,  the  startled  but  confident 
old  lady  was  summoned  to  render  what  explanation 
she  could  before  Coke  himself.  Such  a  presence  did 
not  render  her  confused.  "She  confessed  that  Mr. 
PuUen,  the  Earl  of  Arundel's  steward,  about  one  of 
the  clock  at  midnight  was  three  years,  on  May-day 
came  to  this  examinate's  house  in  Holborn,  and  called 
her  up  presently  to  provide  a  banquet  for  the  prince 
that  is  dead,  and  for  the  prince  that  now  is,  both  of 
them  going  a  maying  to  Highgate,  with  many  others ; 
which  banquet  was  carried  away  by  four  of  the  clock, 
having  scarce  time  to  dish  it  out :  and  said  that  Mr. 
Pullen,  Mr.  Dixe,  and  Mr.  Arden  were  there  at  the 
dishing  of  it  out,  carried  them  away  in  a  coach,  and 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  401 

this  examinate  went  with  them  in  the  coach ;  and  the 
banquet  was  all  of  dried  fruit  and  rough  candied. 
And  the  banquet  was  set  on  the  table  about  six  of 
the  clock  in  the  morning."  This  indicates  an  amount 
of  "  madcapism  "  on  the  part  of  Henry  and  Charles 
which  cannot  be  parallelled  on  authority  by  any  of 
the  alleged  escapades  of  Harry  of  Monmouth.  Susan 
Saul  —  as  she  signs  her  deposition  —  adds,  for  her 
religion  and  the  good  name  of  her  house,  that  "she 
confesses  that  she  thinks  the  Catholic  religion  is  the 
best,  and  that  she  never  came  to  church  this  sixteen 
years  or  thereabouts ;  and  said,  that  biscuit-bread 
was  sliced  and  served  out  of  the  house  to  the  ban- 
quet, which  was  none  of  the  examinate's  as  she 
takes  it." 

I  rejoice  that  no  harm  came  to  honest  Susan.  The 
inquiry  dropped,  and  controversy  began.  Whether 
the  question  will  ever  be  indisputably  decided,  it 
would  be  useless  to  conjecture.  There  is  one  cir- 
cumstance connected  with  the  death  of  the  prince 
which  must  be  noticed  before  we  pass  to  his  succes- 
sor. In  the  course  of  his  illness  he  was  prescribed 
for  by  Mayerne,  the  great  French  physician,  who 
knew  more  about  the  state  poisonings  common  in 
France  than  any  of  his  colleagues.  "In  Mayeme's 
collection  of  cases,  for  which  he  wrote  prescriptions  " 
(says  Mr.  Amos,  "Great  Oyer  of  Poisoning,"  497), 
"everything  that  relates  to  Prince  Henry's  last  ill- 
ness is  torn  out  of  the  book."  This  is  singular ;  but 
if  Mayerne  had  been  capable  of  administering  poison, 
he  would  not  have  scrupled  to  enter  a  record  of  inno- 
cent preparation  in  his  medical  register. 

Thus  died,  leaving  doubt  as  to  the  cause,  and  grief 


402       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

as  to  the  fact,  Prince  Henry ;  of  whom,  and  of  his 
brother  Charles,  Ben  Jonson  thus  fondly  prophesied 
to  the  king  and  queen,  at  the  close  of  the  masque 
which  preceded  the  mock  fights  at  the  famous  "  Bar- 
riers" at  Whitehall,  —  the  nearest  approach  to  war 
ever  made  by  the  former  prince,  of  whom  it  would  be 
difficult  to  say  whether  he  was,  in  theory,  more  of  the 
soldier  or  the  sailor ;  in  real  practice  being  neither : 
"  And  this  young  knight,  that  now  puts  forth  so  soon 
into  the  world,  shall  in  your  names  achieve  more  gar- 
lands for  this  state,  and  shall  relieve  your  cares  in 
government ;  while  that  young  lord  shall  second  him 
in  arms,  and  shake  a  sword  and  lance  against  the  foes 
of  God  and  you." 

Early  in  1613,  the  royal  sorrow  for  the  loss  of  such 
an  heir  as  Henry  was  so  far  assuaged  as  to  admit  of 
the  betrothal  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth  and  the  Prince 
Palatine;  at  which  ceremony,  mourning  was  still 
worn.  But  at  the  nuptial  ceremony  in  February,  the 
tokens  of  sad  memories  were  laid  aside :  the  bride 
was  in  white,  the  king  sparkling  with  jewels,  and  the 
young  Duke  of  York  forward  and  graceful  in  conduct- 
ing his  sister  to  the  altar.  The  king  had  decided 
upon  taking  to  himself  the  revenues  of  the  Duchy  of 
Cornwall,  alleging  that  the  dukedom,  when  not 
possessed  by  a  prince  born  Duke  of  Cornwall,  the 
first-born  son  of  the  sovereign,  lapsed  to  the  Crown. 
But  the  lawyers  overruled  him  and  James  yielded 
with  tolerable  grace. 

It  is  not,  after  all,  easy  to  determine  which  son 
was  the  "  favourite  "  of  the  queen.  Each  has  been 
named  by  turns  ;  but  much  seemed  to  depend  upon 
the  humour  of  the  hour.     When  Charles  was  a  self- 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  403 

willed  boy  —  as  Henry  was  occasionally  —  his  mother 
is  reported  to  have  once  said  of  him  that  "  he  would 
live  to  plague  three  kingdoms  by  his  wilfulness." 

Charles  played  no  very  prominent  part  previous  to 
his  own  creation  as  Prince  of  Wales.  We  hear  of 
him  at  sermons  with  the  king;  paying  visits  to 
Phineas  Pett,  at  Woolwich  ;  and  on  one  occasion, 
appearing  in  the  king's  privy  chamber.  The  queen, 
not  very  willingly,  had  brought  in  the  new  favourite 
of  her  husband,  Villiers,  styling  him  a  candidate  for 
knighthood  worthy  of  St.  George  himself ;  and  she 
bade  Charles  to  bring  her  his  father's  sword.  The 
young  duke  advanced  and  drew  from  the  sheath, 
handing  it  to  the  queen,  who  in  her  turn  approached 
the  king,  weapon  in  one  hand,  Villiers  drawn  by  the 
other.  James  affected  to  be  alarmed  at  this  Amazon- 
ian display  ;  but  as  Villiers  knelt,  she  and  the  **  little 
duke  "  (he  was  then  a  slim  boy  of  fourteen)  guided 
the  king's  hand  in  laying  the  sword  on  Villiers's 
shoulder  ;  in  doing  which  the  three,  between  them,  — 
the  king  in  his  awkwardness,  the  queen  in  her  haste, 
and  the  duke  in  his  boyish  and  thoughtless  glee,  — 
very  nearly  poked  out  one  of  the  finest  eyes  that 
ever  sparkled  under  knightly  brow. 

In  boyish  gladness,  in  tennis,  —  at  which  he  was  an 
adept,  —  in  hunting,  and  court  revelries,  the  youth  of 
Charles  passed  on.  It  was  the  happiest  period  of  his 
life  ;  poets  praised  his  presence,  and  sang  of  glories  — 
which  were  not  to  come;  flatterers  encircled  him, 
and  prattled  of  virtues  —  which  but  for  them  he 
might  have  attained ;  and  young  ladies  invented  a 
dance,  or  dance-figure,  indicating  their  admiration  of 
the  young  Apollo,  by  calling  it  the  "  C.  P."  (Carolus 


404       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Princeps).  At  length  arrived  the  period,  in  1616, 
four  years  after  the  death  of  Henry,  when  Charles 
was  to  be  created  Prince  of  Wales.  Not  in  solemn, 
sumptuous,  and  therewith  gay  celebration,  such  as 
had  marked  the  creation  of  the  deceased  prince. 
The  weather  (November  4,  16 16)  was  inclement, 
and  that,  with  the  ill  health  of  Charles,  prevented  all 
public  show;  and  such  ceremony  as  was  observed 
took  place  within  doors,  at  Whitehall,  privately ;  and 
under  one  and  the  same  roof  he  was  invested  with 
a  title  which  distinguished  the  heir  apparent  to  the 
throne,  and,  years  subsequently,  stripped  of  his 
royalty,  and  sent  forth  to  death  !  The  king  stood  at 
the  window  to  see  his  son  arrive,  but  the  queen,  for 
fear  of  renewing  her  grief  for  the  defunct  prince,  was 
unable  to  be  present. 

Winwood  read  the  patent  of  creation,  kneeling  the 
while,  and  the  young  prince  listened,  in  the  same 
reverent  posture.  Beecher,  writing  to  Carleton  on 
the  subject,  informs  the  latter  that  there  was  no 
**  solemnity "  on  the  occasion,  except  a  combat  of 
barriers  performed  by  the  Inns  of  Court ;  and  that 
the  courtiers  projected  nothing  in  honour  of  the 
event,  because  Charles  was  disinclined  either  to  be 
left  out  or  to  take  a  part  in  any  festival  proceeding. 
<*It  is  whispered,"  writes  Beecher,  "that  he  is  of 
a  weak  and  craizie  (sickly)  disposition." '  Among 
the  Knights  of  the  Bath  "dubbed  "  in  celebration  of 
the  elevation  of  the  Duke  of  York  to  the  principality, 
was  "Mr.  Seymour,  that  married  the  Lady  Ara- 
bella." At  the  ceremony  itself  many  things  went 
wrong.  The  Bishop  of  Ely,  by  mistake,  prayed  for 
'  State  Papers,  Domestic  Series,  1616. 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  405 

Henry,  Prince  of  Wales ;  and  when  the  "  two  dozen 
sons  of  noblest  houses,"  who  had  been  made  Knights 
of  the  Bath,  dined  at  Drapers'  Hall,  with  the  lord  mayor 
and  the  municipality,  they  behaved  with  a  rudeness 
to  the  citizens'  wives  which  created  a  disgust,  and 
was  remembered  when  the  Prince  of  Wales,  as 
king,  stood,  with  his  cavaliers,  at  issue  with  his 
people. 

On  the  other  hand,  for  scant  ceremony  at  White- 
hall, and  lack  of  courtesy  in  the  city,  there  was  much 
rejoicing  in  the  official  residence  of  the  governors  of 
Wales  —  down  at  Ludlow  Castle  ;  and  it  was  fitting 
that  there  should  be  a  day  of  festival  there,  since  the 
4th  of  November,  16 16,  was  no  such  day  in  London. 
Ludlow,  in  whose  castle  the  Lord  President  of 
Wales  had  his  council  throne,  exhibited  such  a  show 
of  loyalty  and  gladness  that  record  was  made  of  the 
same  by  Daniel  Powell,  whose  "  natural  father,"  as 
the  son  calls  him,  was  that  Doctor  Powell  who  trans- 
lated those  old  chronicles  of  Wales  which  are  still 
pleasant  and  acceptable  to  the  ears  of  the  sons  of  the 
ancient  Britons. 

The  younger  Daniel  was  no  great  personage  him- 
self, but  he  was  moved,  he  says  in  his  address  "  To 
the  Reader,"  by  the  great  cheerfulness  and  exceeding 
forwardness  which  was  in  my  countrymen  and  all  in 
these  parts,  upon  the  day  of  his  Highness's  creation 
as  Prince  of  Wales.  Accordingly  he  registered  this 
loyal  story  in  a  book  called  "  The  Love  of  Wales 
to  their  Sovereign  Prince,  expressed  in  a  true 
relation  of  the  solemnity  held  at  Ludlow,  in  the 
county  of  Salop,  upon  the  4th  November  last  past. 
Anno  Domini,  16 16.     Being  the  day  of  the  creation  of 


4o6       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  high  and  mighty  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales  and 
Earl  of  Chester,  in  his  Majesty's  Palace  of  White- 
hall." 

Daniel's  warm  Welsh  blood  enables  him  not  to 
care  a  fico  for  those  extremely  awful  beings  —  the 
"critickes."  "However,"  he  remarks,  "the  carping 
critickes  may  calumniate  my  honeste  endeavours,  yet 
I  am  sure  they  can  never  obliterate  the  memory  of 
that  day's  mirth ; "  and  with  this  consolatory  reflection 
he  proceeds  to  make  record  of  the  solemnities  and 
rejoicings  of  that  never-to-be-forgotten  day. 

By  following  him  through  this  record,  we  seem  to 
share  in  the  celebration.  We  hear  the  proclamation 
of  resident  lords  of  the  council  read  in  Ludlow  town, 
and  we  see  the  ancient  streets  gradually  filling  with 
thousands  of  holiday-makers.  Here  is  a  limner 
carrying  a  shield  of  the  prince's  arms,  to  be  affixed 
under  the  pulpit  in  St.  Lawrence's  Church.  There, 
hastens  another  heraldic  painter  to  hang  a  similar 
shield  in  the  chapel  within  the  castle.  This  is  before 
breakfast-time,  when  things  as  yet  are  only  getting 
into  order. 

The  great  town  clocks  rival  each  other  in  striking 
nine  loudest,  and  then  commences  the  business  of 
the  day.  There,  might  be  seen  richly  clad  magis- 
trates and  even  loftier  personages,  with  suitably 
apparelled  burgesses,  and  troops  of  scholars  hand- 
somely decked,  all  marching  in  procession  to  the 
church.  They  went  along,  that  bright  and  bannered 
train,  on  that  fair  November  morning,  not  silent  and 
shamefaced,  but  with  songs  on  their  lips  and  gladness 
in  their  eyes,  and  their  songs  were  hymns  of  praise 
of  their   prince,    and   psalms   of  thanksgiving  that 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  407 

Heaven  had  made  him  such  a  matchless  prince  as 
report  declared  him  to  be. 

In  this  wise,  having  before  them  "the  Town 
Waites,  and  other  loud  instruments  of  musicke,"  and 
being  escorted  by  a  hundred  soldiers,  "  well  appointed 
and  furnished  with  halberts,  pikes,  corslets,  muskets, 
and  caliners,"  and  Captain  Leonard  Lloyd  at  the 
head  of  them,  they  all  set  forward  to  church,  with  a 
wonderful  clamour  of  divers  instruments,  lustily  play- 
ing, in  or  out  of  tune,  according  to  the  accident  of 
the  moment. 

From  the  Castle  Green,  too,  had  descended  a  glori- 
ous procession  of  all  the  notable  personages  of  the 
castle,  bravely  arrayed,  "with  good  consorts  of  mu- 
sicke, as  cornets,  sagbuts,  and  other  winde  instru- 
ments," and  these  processions  and  sounds  united 
into  one  mass,  at  which  moment  "  a  volley  of  shot 
was  fired  by  the  musketeers  and  caliners,  which  so 
pierced  the  ayre  with  the  great  noyse  of  drummes, 
and  sound  of  trumpets,  fifes,  flutes,  and  other  instru- 
ments, as  the  like  in  these  parts  hath  not  been  seen ; 
to  the  great  admiration  and  much  rejoicing  of  all  the 
spectators."  Indeed,  the  performance  was  "encored," 
and  another  volley  being  discharged,  at  the  church 
door,  and  all  the  bands  again  breaking  forth  into 
crashing  harmony,  the  grand  personages,  and  many 
of  the  multitude,  put  on  a  quiet  air  and  went  soberly 
into  church. 

There,  Master  Thomas  Pierson,  a  grave,  reverend 
divine,  and  worthy  preacher,  awaited  them  after 
prayers  with  a  short  text  and  a  long  sermon.  The 
former  was  from  the  seventy-second  Psalm  :  "  Give 
the  king  thy  judgments,  O  God ;  and  thy  righteous- 


4o8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ness  to  the  king's  son."  There  is  an  air  of  decent 
resignation  in  the  way  in  which  Daniel  Powell  re- 
marks that  Master  Pierson  "made  a  very  learned 
sermon  of  an  houre  and  halfe  long."  He  adds  no 
complaining  comment,  but  there  is  a  sense  of  oppres- 
sion in  the  very  phrasing. 

Then  not  only  the  "  singing  men  and  quiristers," 
but  also  the  organ  highly  distinguished  itself,  seeing 
that  the  former  sung  psalms  "  to  and  with  the  great 
organ,"  which  indicates  unusual  power  in  the  voice 
department  of  that  huge  instrument. 

The  "parson  "  having  had  his  turn,  then  came  the 
opportunity  of  the  poet.  The  council-lords  and  other 
folk  of  note  and  standing  returned  in  noisy  or  tuneful 
procession  through  the  town,  but  in  the  market-place 
they  were  arrested  by  a  gorgeous  display  of  Latin 
verses  let  off  by  divers  scholars;  but  the  display 
itself  was  the  result  of  "  the  painful  Industrie  of  that 
judicious  and  laborious  Maister  of  Artes,  Humfrey 
Herbert,  chief  scholemaster  of  his  Majesties  free 
schole  there,  upon  one  dayes  warning."  And  con- 
sidering the  shortness  of  the  warning,  the  verses  are 
not  worse  than  laudatory  poems  by  poets  with  much 
leisure. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  it  required  of  neces- 
sity a  master  of  arts  to  "  make  "  verses  at  one  day's 
warning.  There  was  a  Ludlow  alderman  —  honour 
be  to  his  name,  it  was  "  Maister  Richard  Fisher  "  — 
who  would  not  be  beaten  by  the  judicious  and  labori- 
ous graduate.  The  alderman  could  not  get  a  Latin 
muse  into  harness,  but  he  walked  along  soberly  and 
sonorously  in  English  lines,  recited  by  a  couple  of 
the    scholars.      And  though   an   alderman,    he   was 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  409 

modest,  acknowledging  that  "  what  the  fulness  of  his 
joy  brought  forth,"  was  not  at  all  "equal  to  the 
cause's  worth : "  as  a  prophet,  the  spirit  of  the  vates 
sat  but  uneasily  on  this  respectable  member  of  the 
Ludlow  corporation,  who  foretold  that,  under  Charles, 
should  — 

"  The  proudest  opposition  learn  to  know 
The  duty  to  our  sovereign  king  we  owe." 

The  lords  of  the  council,  however,  were  good-natured 
listeners.  They,  the  magistrates,  bailiffs,  and  other 
magnates,  lauded  every  measure,  not  forgetting  the 
"gracious  bouldnesse"  of  the  scholars  who  had 
delivered  the  poetic  message  to  the  general  ear. 

Blaze  went  the  bonfires,  clash  went  the  divers 
bands,  and  bang  went  volley  after  volley,  as  the  pro- 
cession moved  on  to  the  court-house  of  the  princi- 
pality, where  "Sir  Thomas  Chamberlayne,  Knt., 
Sergeant-at-Law,  and  Chief  Justice  of  Chester," 
outdid  the  poets  by  the  eloquence  of  his  prose,  as 
developed  in  a  speech,  in  which  he  hit  upon  the 
happy  fact  that  this  day  of  the  creation  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  was  on  "a  happy  and  glorious  day,  the 
bright  sunshining  glory  of  Great  Britain,  being  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  and  the  first  day  of  our  term, 
and  the  next  day  to  the  Lord's  own  day,  and  the 
next  day  before  our  wonderful  day  of  our  great 
deliverance  from  the  Gunpowder  Treason,  the  king's 
day."  Such  singular  coincidences  were  hardly  fol- 
lowed by  the  happy  consequences  they  were  supposed 
to  augur,  nevertheless  they  were  received  with  favour 
by  an  audience  who  were  assured  by  Sir  Thomas  that 
"  the  most  excellent  prince  takes  it  for  a  high  honour 
and  great  dignity  unto  himself  to  be  created  Prince 


41  o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  Wales ;  and  therefore,"  added  the  loyal  sergeant, 
"all  we  of  this  principality  and  jurisdiction  are  the 
rather  bound  to  yield  all  honour,  duty,  and  service 
to  him  who  hath  so  much  honoured  us  and  all 
Wales." 

At  the  conclusion  of  a  speech,  more  wisely  brief 
than  the  sermon,  "  all  the  people  with  a  loud  voyce 
prayed  and  ciyed  Amen !  Amen ! "  And  then 
came  the  climax  of  the  noisy  portion  of  the 
ceremony;  for  the  amens  had  scarcely  died  away 
when  —  "  all  the  musicke  played,  drums  were  struck, 
flutes  whistled,  trumpets  sounded,  people  showted, 
and  another  piercing  and  thundering  volley  of  shot 
was  let  flye,  the  eccho  and  report  whereof  resounded 
admirably  to  the  great  solace  and  comfort  of  all 
present." 

There  is  a  touch  of  satire  in  these  last  words  of 
the  worthy  chronicler,  seeing  that  they  are  followed 
by  the  intimation  that  one  o'clock  was  now  full  come, 
and  with  it,  dinner-time.  Hence  the  solace  and  com- 
fort. "The  best  sort  of  gentlemen,"  we  are  told, 
dined  together  at  the  castle  ;  the  bailiffs  and  bur- 
gesses and  baser  sort  of  loyal  folk  "went  down  to 
the  towne;"  but  to  do  the  castle  justice  it  must  be 
stated  that  Ralph  Mansfield,  chief  steward,  tapped 
of  his  best ;  and  the  worser  sort  of  gentlemen  did 
not  depart  till  they  had  "  drunk  plentifully  of  wine." 

The  afternoon  jollity  was  abundant,  both  up  at  the 
castle  and  down  in  the  town ;  but  it  had  a  good 
precedent  and  a  good  consequence.  As  the  day  had 
commenced  with  prayer  at  St.  Lawrence's,  so  now 
was  it  concluded  with  "Evening  Sacrifice"  at  the 
castle  chapel,  —  "all  attendant  with  gatherings  and 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  411 

marchings,  and  musicke  of  delicious  variety,  and 
thundering  vollies  that  shook  the  very  windows  of 
the  prince's  tower."  Nor  was  this  all ;  when 
feasting  and  frolic  were  over,  and  the  evening  service 
brought  to  an  end,  the  Chief  Justice  of  Chester 
reminded  the  good  people  that  if  they  had  met  that 
day  in  prayer  for  the  prosperity  of  a  new  prince, 
they  had  also  to  meet  on  the  next  day  in  thanksgiving 
for  a  king  preserved.  And  the  good  folk  not  only 
cheered  him  lustily,  but  went  to  church  with  him 
the  next  day  in  grateful  gladness  of  heart  for  the 
saving  of  the  sire  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  from  the 
Gunpowder  Plot.  And  they  listened  cheerfully  to 
Master  Thomas  Kaye,  the  king's  chaplain,  who  gave 
a  longer  text  and  made  a  shorter  sermon  than  the 
preacher  of  the  day  before,  —  at  all  events,  Daniel 
the  chronicler  does  not  pause  to  register  its  length  ; 
and  the  holiday  was  carried  out  to  the  conclusion  of 
the  second  day,  all  being  done,  as  Daniel  piously  and 
loyally  records,  "for  the  glorie  of  God,  the  honour 
of  the  king  and  Prince  of  Wales,  —  as  well  to  testify 
and  express  his  (the  Justice's)  duty  and  service,  as 
also  the  loyalty  and  hearty  joy  of  all  his  Majesty's 
loving  subjects  there  assembled." 

In  such  wise  did  Ludlow  celebrate  the  creation  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales ;  —  expressing  hopes  that  were 
never  to  be  realised,  and  uttering  prophecies  that 
were  never  to  be  fulfilled. 

So  pass  we  on  to  other  matter,  leaving  to  con- 
jecture which  of  the  discourses  preached  at  Ludlow 
on  this  occasion  belonged  to  that  class  which  Swift 
enumerates  among  the  felicities  of  the  life  of  a  coun- 
try parson : 


412        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

"  Parson,  these  things  in  thy  possessing 
Are  better  than  the  bishop's  blessing : 
A  wife  that  makes  conserves ;  a  steed 
That  carries  double  when  there's  need ; 

A  huge  Concordance  bound  long  since, 
Sermons  to  Charles  the  First,  when  prince.** 

Charles,  however,  when  prince,  had  no  more  liberty 
allowed  him,  at  first,  than  when  he  was  Duke  of 
York.  People  remarked  that  he  ran  not  with  reins 
loose,  at  so  early  a  period  as  his  brother.  To  keep 
him  from  popery,  two  sober  divines.  Doctor  Hackwell 
and  another,  were  placed  with  him,  and  were  ordered 
never  to  leave  him  !  That  he  preserved  a  regard  for 
his  own  church  under  such  a  process,  bespeaks  his 
own  good  sense,  and  the  discretion  of  his  spiritual 
gaolers.  Masques,  in  which  were  introduced  a  pair 
of  goats  and  a  speech  in  Welsh,  reminded  him  occa- 
sionally of  his  connection  with  Wales.  Indeed,  that 
he  might  not  forget  that.  Dr.  John  Davies  composed 
and  dedicated  to  the  prince  a  Latin  and  Welsh  dic- 
tionary,—  intimating  to  him,  in  the  dedication,  that 
if  there  were  any  language  with  which  he  was  bound 
to  be  acquainted,  it  was  with  "  the  ancient  language 
of  this  isle,  now  peculiar  to  their  own  Wales  "  {anti- 
quam  hujus  insula  linguam,  nunc  Wallcei  tuce  pecu- 
Harem)  .^ 

In  1618,  fell  the  mortal  sickness  of  his  mother, 
whose  bedside  he  was  reluctant  to  leave.  "I  am  a 
pretty  fine  servant  to  wait  upon,"  said  the  queen, 

*  The  erudite  and  enthusiastic  lexicographer  adds :  "  Sic  etiam 
et  operi  huic  a  me  consultum  erit  optime  si  jam  recens  natura  et 
ad  pedes  tuos,  lUustrissime  Princeps  provolutum,  hilari  fronte  in 
clientelam  suscipere  dignaris." 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  413 

who,  more  than  once,  on  Charles  returning,  bade  him 
retire  to  his  room.  At  the  supreme  moment,  how- 
ever, the  son  was  kneeling  by  the  side  of  his  mother's 
bed,  and  in  that  position  the  queen  gave  him  her 
blessing,  her  hands  being  guided  and  placed  upon 
the  head,  which  was  not  made  safe  by  the  maternal 
benediction.  At  her  funeral,  Charles  went  on  foot, 
preceding  the  hearse. 

After  her  death,  she  was  found  to  have  left  her 
jewels  to  her  son,  a  course  not  altogether  pleasant  to  the 
king,  who,  with  a  different  end  in  view,  had  previously 
sent  a  message  to  Charles,  to  induce  his  mother  to 
make  a  will.  The  delicacy  of  the  prince  impelled  him 
first  to  send  through  Lord  Montgomery  to  his  father, 
asking  if  he  had  comprehended  the  message  rightly. 
The  question  enraged  "the  Sow,"  as  the  queen  was 
wont  irreverently  to  name  her  husband;  on  which 
the  prince  wrote  to  Villiers :  "  That  which  made  me 
think  this  message  would  not  displease  the  king,  was 
the  command  you  know  he  gave  a  long  while  ago, 
that  I  should  use  all  the  means  I  could  to  make  the 
queen  make  a  will  whereby  she  should  make  over  to 
me  her  jewels.  Therefore,  I  sent  to  have  the  king's 
approbation  of  that  which  I  thought  he  had  desired, 
and,  therefore,  I  thought  he  would  rather  be  glad 
than  any  way  displeased  with  the  message.  My 
meaning  was  never  to  claim  anything  as  of  right,  but 
to  submit  myself  to  the  king's  pleasure." 

A  letter  written  the  same  year  to  Villiers  indicates 
the  growing  evil  influence  of  *'  Steenie  "  over  "  Baby  " 
Charles.  "The  king,"  writes  the  latter,  "gave  me  a 
good  sharp  potion,  but  you  took  away  the  working  of 
it  by  the  well-relished  comfites  you  sent  after  it.     I 


414       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

have  met  with  the  party  that  must  not  be  named, 
once  already;  and  the  colour  (pretence)  of  writing 
this  letter  shall  make  me  meet  with  her  on  Saturday. 
...  I  hope  ye  will  not  shew  the  king  this  letter,  but 
put  it  into  the  safe  custody  of  Mister  Vulcan." 
Three  years  later,  when  Charles  was  in  his  twenty- 
first  year,  a  passage  in  a  note  to  Villiers  shows  the 
growth  of  the  spirit  in  Charles  which  led  to  such 
fatal  consequences.  "The  Lower  House,  this  day 
(Friday,  3  Nov.,  1621),  has  been  a  little  unruly,  but 
I  hope  it  will  turn  to  the  best,  for,  before  they  rose, 
they  began  to  be  ashamed  of  it.  Yet  I  could  wish 
that  the  king  would  send  down  a  commission  here 
(that  if  needs  were,  such  seditious  fellows  might  be 
made  an  example  to  others)  by  Monday  next,  and  till 
then  I  would  let  them  alone.  It  will  be  seen  whether 
they  mean  to  do  good  or  to  persist  in  their  follies ; 
so  that  the  king  needs  to  be  patient  but  a  little  while. 
I  have  spoken  with  so  many  of  the  Council  as  the 
king  trusts  most,  and  they  are  all  of  his  mind,  only  " 
(adds  this  Charles  le  Hardi)  "  the  sending  of  authority 
to  set  seditious  fellows  fast  is  of  my  adding."  Thus 
early,  in  1621,  did  Charles  of  Dunfermline,  Prince  of 
Wales,  commence  the  ill-advised  and  self-dependent 
course  which  closed  on  the  scaffold  at  Whitehall  in 
1649  •  It  ^^^  ^  course  which  the  prince  pursued 
with  vigour.  In  1622,  the  House  having  granted  a 
subsidy  and  petitioned  to  be  dismissed,  the  prince 
writes :  "  This  they  have  done  is  not  so  great  a 
matter,  that  the  king  need  to  be  indulgent  over  them 
for  it.  Yet,  on  the  other  side  (for  his  reputation 
abroad  at  this  time),  I  would  not  wholly  discontent 
them."      Charles  insists  that  the  king  should  com- 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  415 

mand  the  House  to  keep  silence  on  certain  subjects 
named,  and  adds,  characteristically,  "This,  in  my 
opinion,  does  neither  suffer  them  to  encroach  upon 
the  king's  authority,  nor  give  them  just  cause  of  dis- 
contentment ; "  one  of  those  illogical  conclusions 
which  recoiled  heavily  on  the  head  of  the  princely 
maker  of  it. 

Four  years  previous  to  the  creation  of  the  prince, 
the  king  had  conferred  on  him  the  reversion  of  the 
office  of  lord  high  admiral  of  England  for  life,  con- 
ceding to  him  all  the  profits  arising  therefrom,  except 
"pirates'  goods,"  the  king  being  unwilling  that  the 
conscience  of  his  son  should  be  "burdened  with 
things  of  so  litigious  a  nature."  To  the  ordinary 
source  of  revenue  which  he  enjoyed  as  Prince  of 
Wales,  were  occasionally  added  others  of  a  singular 
nature.  Thus,  in  161 8,  I  find  a  warrant  issued, 
granting  ;£2,2C)0  to  Adam  Newton,  the  old  tutor  and 
now  secretary  of  Charles,  for  the  use  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  This  sum  was  a  portion  of  the  first  instal- 
ment of  a  fine  of  ;£20,ooo  laid  by  the  Star  Chamber 
on  the  Countess  Dowager  of  Shrewsbury.  With 
these  moneys,  Charles  kept  a  princely  house,  loving 
to  have  all  things  in  perfection  ;  even  his  running 
footmen  were  selected  from  men  who  had  come  off 
victoriously,  or,  at  all  events,  with  honour,  in  the 
foot-races  then  so  frequent  in  Hyde  Park.  He  was 
hospitable,  too,  as  became  a  prince.  When,  in  the 
ninth  year  after  his  creation,  he  entertained  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick  as  a  guest,  he  supplied  the  ducal  visitor 
even  with  money,  making  him  a  gift  on  one  occasion 
of  ;£3,ooo.  The  duke  led  a  joyous  life,  in  which  the 
prince  participated.     He  made  such  demonstrations 


41 6       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  gallantry  at  the  houses  of  the  nobility  where  he 
visited,  that  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  stipulated 
before  receiving  him  that  he  was  not  to  kiss  her. 
The  Bruns wicker  gaily  assented.  The  duchess  re- 
ceived him,  surrounded  by  a  bevy  of  pretty  maids, 
and  the  duke,  simply  bowing  to  the  duchess,  went 
up  and  kissed  the  hilarious  maidens  twice  round.  A 
dozen  of  them  was  very  good  change  for  a  duchess. 

As  among  the  regal  titles  of  James  there  con- 
tinued to  be  borne  that  of  "  King  of  France,"  it  was 
the  less  singular,  perhaps,  that  the  idea  entered  any 
English  head  of  making  something  like  a  reality  of 
that  foolishly  assumed  title.  Yet  among  the  state 
papers  of  the  domestic  series  of  this  period,  there 
is  a  letter  from  Captain  Jackson  to  Salisbury,  recom- 
mending a  war  with  France,  advocating  the  king's 
right  to  the  sovereignty  of  that  country,  and  sug- 
gesting that,  when  conquered,  it  should  be  converted 
into  a  kingdom  for  the  Prince  of  Wales ! 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  collected  from  the 
same  papers,  that  a  conspiracy  is  said  to  have  existed, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  dethrone  James  and  place 
the  prince  in  his  stead.  When  pressure  was  being 
applied  to  compel  the  king  to  break  the  treaties  into 
which  he  had  entered  with  Spain,  Buckingham  is 
accused  of  having  declared  that,  if  James  did  not  yield, 
it  would  be  as  well  to  leave  him  to  his  sports,  for 
that  the  prince  was  now  (in  1624)  of  sufficient  years 
to  take  his  place.  The  Spanish  ambassador  himself 
informed  the  king  that,  unless  he  looked  to  it,  the 
prince  and  Buckingham  would  shut  him  up  at  Theo- 
balds, and  his  son  would  be  king  in  the  lifetime  of 
his  father.     James  wept,  as  was  but  natural,  when 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  417 

he  communicated  what  he  had  heard  to  Baby  Charles 
and  Steenie,  but  found  comfort  in  their  assurances 
that  the  report  was  but  calumny. 

**  There  never  was  braver  prince,  nor  fitter  to  com- 
mand," writes  Conway  to  Carleton.  "The  prince 
has  grown  a  fine  gentleman,"  writes  Chamberlain  to 
the  same  person.  The  warmth  of  the  affection 
entertained  for  him  by  some  individuals  is  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  Sir  Noel  de  Caron,  who  made 
him  his  heir.  He  had  not  only  grown  into  graceful 
form  himself,  but  he  could  not  bear  to  see  his  own 
old  deformity  in  others.  Sir  Robert  Killigrew  had 
a  son  in  the  prince's  household,  who  was  crooked- 
legged,  and  Sir  Robert  hearing  that  the  prince  dis- 
liked his  son  because  of  this  defect,  wrote  to  Carleton, 
offering  to  mar  the  boy's  prospects,  by  withdrawing 
him  from  service  under  the  Prince  of  Wales.  That 
the  prince's  house,  where  the  bow-legged  page 
offended  his  master,  was  a  dwelling  where  harmony 
made  home,  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  Charles 
authorised  Sir  William  Uvedale,  the  treasurer  of  his 
chamber,  to  pay  very  nearly  ;^  1,000  per  annum,  in 
annuities  granted  to  the  prince's  musicians.'  If  he 
loved  music  and  the  fine  arts  generally,  ran  success- 
fully at  the  ring,  rode  gracefully,  and  tilted  with 
success,  he  was  not  less  addicted  to  graver  studies, 
especially  to  theology.  "  Charles,"  once  said  the 
delighted  king  to  his  chaplains,  "shall  manage  a 
point  in  controversy  with  the  best  studied  divine  of 
you  all." 

Then  his  chivalrous  ardour  as  a  lover  is  a  familiar 
story  to  us  all.     It  is  only  rendering  justice  to  the 

»  State  Papers.     Dom.  Ser.     Edited  by  John  Bruce,  Esq.,  F.  S.  A. 


4i8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Stuarts  to  say  that,  when  they  wooed  a  lady,  in 
honour  or  in  dishonour,  their  gallantry  was  unim- 
peachable. The  narrative  of  the  Spanish  match 
proves  that  Charles  was  worthy  in  this  respect  of 
his  race.  During  seven  out  of  the  nine  years  that 
Charles  was  Prince  of  Wales,  negotiations  for  his 
marriage  with  Mary,  daughter  of  Philip  III.  of  Spain, 
were  in  progress,  or  in  retrogression.  They  com- 
menced in  1617,  and  in  1623  so  uncertain  was  the 
conclusion  to  which  they  were  likely  to  come,  and  so 
desirous  was  the  prince  that  they  should  end  favour- 
ably, that  then  occurred  that  famous  journey,  the 
king's  consent  to  which  had  been  so  often  accorded 
and  withdrawn,  and  which  was  undertaken  by  Charles 
and  Buckingham,  under  the  names  of  John  and 
Thomas  Smith,  with  a  few  gentlemen  attendants 
disguised  like  themselves,  and  Archie  Armstrong, 
the  king's  fool,  who  was  not  the  least  sagacious  per- 
sonage of  the  party. 

In  three  weeks,  after  many  adventures  by  the  way, 
the  party  reached  Madrid,  the  7th  of  March,  1623, 
and  the  cost  of  this  romantic  trip  exceeded  ;£$ 0,000. 
They  remained  there  about  six  months,  England  all 
that  time  being  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  anxiety 
for  the  safety  and  orthodoxy  of  their  then  beloved 
prince.  At  first,  as  soon  as  the  English  ambassador. 
Lord  Bristol,  had  announced  who  John  Smith  really 
was,  Spain  was  in  a  fever  of  delight.  Charles  was 
lodged  splendidly  at  court,  and  gorgeously  or  insidi- 
ously invited  to  become  a  Romanist.  He  entered  into 
a  correspondence  with  the  Pope,  in  which  the  prince 
seemed  to  have  a  leaning  toward  the  papacy,  and  he 
was  the  idol  of  the  nation,  for  an  hour.     During  his 


THE  BROTHER  -  PRINCES  OF  WALES  4^9 

half-year's  sojourn  in  Spain  he  was  never  but  once 
able,  during  a  few  moments  only,  to  address  a  few 
words  to  the  Infanta,  without  a  witness.  He  had 
first  been  permitted  to  look  on  her  as  she  passed 
him,  blushing  the  while,  in  a  coach.  At  court  he 
was  subsequently  allowed  to  address  her  through 
interpreters.  Jewels  to  the  value,  it  is  said,  of  above 
half  a  million  of  money,  forwarded  to  the  prince 
from  England,  were  presented  to  the  lady,  not  by, 
but  in  the  name  of,  her  lover.  Once,  when  she  had 
gone  a  May -dewing,  he  contrived  to  join  her  and 
kneel  to  kiss  her  hand,  but  he  was  speedily  compelled 
rather  than  induced  to  withdraw,  for  the  very  tips  of 
the  fingers  of  the  princess  were  sacred,  as  long  as  no 
dispensation  had  arrived  from  Rome.  The  match 
was  unpopular  in  England,  for  it  would  give  a  foot- 
ing whereon  popery  might  solidly  establish  itself. 
Whether  Spain  ever  seriously  intended  that  it  should 
be  really  effected,  is  still  matter  of  controversy.  The 
intrigues  of  one  week  only  served  to  undo  all  that 
had  been  accomplished  during  the  preceding  week, 
till  Charles,  Buckingham,  and  Archie  the  fool  became 
all  equally  weary  of  their  never-ending  work,  and  in 
August  the  Prince  of  Wales  wagered  a  thousand 
pounds  against  a  fair  diamond  of  Lord  Bristol's  that 
he  would  be  out  of  the  country  in  three  days  —  and 
won  the  diamond ! 

The  match  was  not  broken  off,  it  was  simply 
deferred.  Charles  took  what  was  supposed  a  tem- 
porary leave  of  his  mistress  —  a  blameless  lady 
throughout  the  whole  affair  —  on  the  I2th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1623.  He  was  well-nigh  drowned  on  going 
on  board  his  ship,  an  incident  which  elicited  some 


42  o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

weak  verses  from  a  never  very  forcible  poet,  Waller. 
On  the  6th  of  October,  the  prince  reached  Ports- 
mouth, glad  at  his  return,  and  wondering  that  the 
Spanish  government  had  not  prevented  it. 

As  for  England,  she  fell  into  an  uncontrollable 
ecstasy  at  this  joyous  return.  The  people  feasted 
in  the  highways,  drank  sack  till  they  reeled,  and  lit 
stupendous  bonfires,  to  express  their  delight.  At 
one  of  these,  on  Blackheath,  all  the  wood  that  could 
be  procured  in  the  vicinity  was  set  blazing,  and  a 
timber-wain  happening  to  pass  that  way,  the  loyal 
mob  took  out  the  horses,  and  set  light  to  both  load 
and  wagon.  As  the  Prince  of  Wales  passed  through 
London,  on  his  way  to  Royston,  to  present  himself 
to  the  king,  he  encountered  a  cart  full  of  wretches  on 
their  dreary  way  to  Tyburn  gallows,  and  these  he  sent 
back  with  a  promise  of  their  lives,  for  a  criminal  could 
not,  on  his  way  to  death,  come  under  the  shadow  of 
a  prince  without  being  made  to  feel  that  the  substance 
which  flung  such  shadows  was  a  princely  heart,  — 
rock  and  fountain  of  mercy. 

Little  recked  England  that  Spain  raised  obstruc- 
tions which  rendered  the  marriage  definitely  impos- 
sible. That  the  Palatinate  would  not  be  restored  to 
the  husband  of  James's  daughter,  Elizabeth,  was  a 
small  sorrow  to  the  English.  They  were  delighted 
to  recover  their  prince.  Chamberlain  wrote  to  Carle- 
ton  after  the  return  of  Charles :  "The  prince  has 
scarcely  vouchsafed  to  look  at  a  present  of  three 
cartloads  of  provisions,  fruits,  and  sweetmeats  sent 
him  by  the  Countess  Olivarez.  He  attends  Parlia- 
ment daily,  and  is  ever  so  watchful  over  our  several 
affairs,  that  all  the  good  that  results  will  be  owing  to 


THE  BROTHER -PRINCES  OF  WALES  421 

him.  He  is  free  from  all  vicious  inclinations,  his 
actions  gracious  and  graceful,  and  his  journey  to  Spain 
has  much  improved  him." 

The  joy  of  King  James  at  the  return  of  his  son  was 
not  long-lived.  On  the  27th  of  March,  1625,  that 
monarch  died,  painfully,  yet  naturally,  though  many 
have  suspected  he  was  poisoned;  and  Milton,  in  a 
letter  to  Salmasius,  accuses  as  his  murderer  —  his 
own  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales  !  The  prince  was  pro- 
claimed king,  at  the  gates  of  Theobalds,  where  his 
father  died.  Sir  Edward  Zouche,  the  knight  mar- 
shal, styled  him,  by  mistake,  "  the  rightful  and  dubi- 
table  heir  !  "  His  own  first  chaplain  in  his  house  as 
Prince  of  Wales  —  namely,  Senhouse  of  Carlisle  — 
was  appointed  by  him  to  preach  his  coronation  ser- 
mon, and  the  prelate  ominously  took  for  his  text  the 
words  from  the  loth  verse  of  the  second  chapter  of 
Revelation  :  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will 
give  thee  a  crown  of  Hfe."  In  the  "  Calendar  of  State 
Papers,"  edited  by  Mr.  Bruce,  there  is  an  entry  which 
shows  that  one  of  Charles's  first  acts  had  reference 
to  certain  business  of  his  as  Prince  of  Wales,  and 
involved  an  attempt  at  an  illegal  course,  for  example : 
"March  31st,  Whitehall.  Conway  to  Coventry.  To 
draw  warrant  to  Lord  Chief  Justice  Hobart  to  pass 
under  his  Majesty's  Great  Seal,  as  Prince  of  Wales, 
such  things  as  had  been  signed,  but  were  not  passed 
at  his  father's  death."  It  is  added:  "This  was  not 
pursued,  being  held  invalid  in  law." 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

CHARLES    OF    ST.    JAMES*S 
Bom  1630.     Died  (king)  1685 

On  Ascension  Eve,  1629,  the  Queen  Henrietta 
Maria  gave  birth  to  a  son,  at  Greenwich.  "  God  had 
shown  them,"  writes  Mayerne  to  Secretary  Dorches- 
ter, **  a  Prince  of  Wales,  but  the  flower  had  been  cut 
down  the  same  instant  that  it  saw  the  Hght."  The 
Muses  took  to  weeping.  In  the  "  Calendar  of  State 
Papers  "  relating  to  this  year,  Mr.  Bruce  cites  an  epi- 
taph on  this  short-lived  prince,  commencing  thus : 

"  Snatched  from  our  longing,  hoping,  eyes, 
Here  all  that  Heaven  could  promise  lies. 
Long  wish'd,  then  born,  he  had  scarce  cried, 
But  he  despis'd  the  times,  and  died ; 
Whom  Heav'n  but  show'd  to  th'  age's  scorn, 
And  then  resum'd  ere  hardly  born  1 " 

For  "the  hope  of  Christendom,"  as  this  lucky  little 
prince  is  questionably  called,  the  mourning  poet  bids 
all  nations  dissolve  into  tears  ;  adding : 

•'  Nor  ever  let  the  shower  be  done, 
Till  my  king  sees  his  second  son  !  " 

The  shower  would  have  lasted  about  a  year.  The 
first-born  prince  was  a  May-flower.     He  lived  long 

422 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  423 

enough  to  be  christened,  Charles  James.  On  the 
29th  of  May,  1630,  the  second  son,  Charles,  was 
bom  at  St.  James's.  On  his  birth  —  so  his  father 
wrote  to  Marie  de  Medicis  —  the  king  set  all  his 
hopes  of  future  prosperity.  Lady  Eleanor  Davys 
prophesied  that  the  royal  prosperity  would  exist  not 
longer  than  sixteen  years  after  the  day  of  the  prince's 
birth !  The  king,  well  content,  went  in  solemn  pro- 
cession to  St.  Paul's  to  evince  his  pious  gratitude 
before  the  face  of  the  nation.  A  bright  star  twinkled 
in  the  heavens  on  that  brilliant  May  morning,  last  of 
the  glittering  watchers  that  had  not  sunk  to  its  rest ; 
and  poets  and  seers  accepted  the  omen  as  indicating 
that  under  our  Isle  in  the  West  was  there  born  a 
conquering  child  whose  lot  it  would  be  to  eclipse  all 
the  glories  of  kings  and  kingdoms  of  the  East.  The 
poets  were  ill-inspired,  and  the  seers  were  mistaken ! 
"  Charles  Stuart "  was  the  first  of  our  very  ugly 
princes.  Even  his  young  mother  recognised  the  ill- 
favour  of  her  boy.  "  He  is  so  ugly,"  wrote  Henrietta 
to  Madame  St.  George,  "that  I  am  ashamed  of  him  ; 
but  his  size  and  fatness  supply  the  want  of  beauty. 
I  wish  you  could  see  the  gentleman,  for  he  has  no 
ordinary  mien.  He  is  so  serious  in  all  that  he  does, 
that  I  cannot  help  deeming  him  far  wiser  than 
myself."  Of  the  Plantagenets,  Prince  Charles  had 
only  the  stature.  "He  is  so  fat  and  so  tall "  —  it  is 
again  the  mother  who  writes  to  her  old  friend,  her 
"Mie"  St.  George  —  "that  he  is  taken  for  a  year 
old,  and  he  is  only  four  months.  His  teeth  are 
already  beginning  to  come.  I  will  send  you  his  por- 
trait as  soon  as  he  is  a  little  fairer,  for  at  present  he 
is   so  dark  that   I   am  ashamed  of  him."     In  this 


424       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

respect  Charles  did  not  improve ;  and,  to  the  last, 
"  Rowley "  remained  as  swart  as  a  raven. 

For  the  young  prince,  on  whose  birth  the  planet 
Venus  shone  out  in  full  day,  —  Heaven,  according 
to  old  Fuller,  having  opened  one  eye  more  than 
ordinary  on  the  occasion,  —  the  poets  and  poetasters 
rushed  into  various  degrees  of  rhyming  nonsense ; 
Oxford  poured  forth  unreadable  stanzas,  and  Cam- 
bridge had  the  good  sense  to  be  silent.  Charles,  who 
was  the  object  of  all  this  homage,  was  declared  Prince 
of  Wales  soon  after  his  birth,  but  he  was  not  created 
a  Knight  of  the  Garter  till  he  had  completed  the 
mature  age  of  twelve  years. 

The  first  occasion  of  this  Prince  of  Wales  appearing 
in  public  was  at  his  own  christening;  and  as  this 
particular  ceremony  was  the  first  and  last  at  which 
a  Prince  of  Wales  was  admitted  into  the  church  with 
circumstances  of  what  would  now  appear  extraor- 
dinary state  or  solemnity,  according  to  the  Protestant 
rubric,  a  few  words  may  be  devoted  to  the  subject. 
On  Sunday,  the  27th  of  June,  at  an  hour  appointed, 
four  royal  chaplains,  the  gentlemen  of  the  king's 
chapel,  and  some  other  officials,  went  in  procession, 
"  surplices  and  copes  in  decent  order,"  to  the  young 
prince's  nursery  door.  On  the  door  being  opened, 
there  appeared  Mrs.  Wyndham  carrying  the  infant, 
at  whose  side  stood  a  Welsh  wet-nurse.  Under  a 
canopy  of  cloth  of  gold,  this  group  thus  escorted  (the 
gentlemen  of  the  Chapel  Royal  as  yet  all  silent), 
proceeded  to  the  lower  chapel  door,  where  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  the  dean  of  the  chapel,  and 
the  clerk  of  the  closet  received  the  unconscious  neo- 
phyte.    At  this  moment  the  organ  rolled  forth  its 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  425 

sounds  of  welcome,  and  continued  playing  till  the 
prince  had  arrived  in  the  traverse  of  the  chapel,  and 
the  gossips  had  taken  their  seats  on  rich  stools,  on 
the  right  side  of  the  font. 

These  gossips  were  the  Duke  of  Lennox  and  the 
Duchess  of  Richmond,  as  representatives  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  King  of  France,  Louis  XIII.,  and 
his  mother,  the  Queen  Marie  de  Medicis.  The 
second  male  gossip  was  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton, 
who  stood  for  the  Protestant  Frederick,  the  Pfalz- 
graf,  and  uncle  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  Roman 
Catholic  element  was  here  predominant. 

The  king  was  alone  in  his  "  closet,"  or  royal  pew. 
In  the  order  of  this  service,  as  given  in  a  document 
in  the  Lansdowne  Manuscripts,  I  find  no  mention 
made  of  a  place  for  the  mother  of  the  prince,  who, 
though  married  by  Protestant  rites  to  the  king,  yet 
refused  to  be  crowned  with  him  according  to  the 
same  church  forms.  The  peers  and  peeresses  pres- 
ent sat  on  either  side  of  the  chapel,  according  to 
their  sex. 

When  all  were  seated,  the  dean  of  the  chapel  com- 
menced evening  prayer ;  and  when  the  anthem  had 
been  sung,  the  prince  was  brought  up  to  the  font. 
Two  countesses  bore  the  infant's  train,  and  "two 
great  lords"  acted  as  his  supporters.  At  this  mo- 
ment, the  king  sent  **a  gentleman  -  usher  to  the 
gossips,  signifying  his  pleasure  what  the  name  of 
the  prince  shall  be."  The  usual  ceremony  was  then 
performed  by  Laud,  and  in  the  name  of  two  of  the 
most  bigoted  Roman  Catholics  in  the  world,  solemn 
promise  was  made,  which  was  little  heeded  even  by 
the    Protestant    gossip,    that    the   newly  christened 


426        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Prince  of  Wales  should  be  virtuously  brought  up  to 
lead  a  godly  and  a  Christian  life. 

The  evening  service  was  then  proceeded  with ;  and 
at  its  close,  his  Majesty  handed  forth  "the  Thanks- 
giving, set  by  Craufurd,  to  be  sung ; "  which  being 
done,  the  heralds  stepped  forward,  and  Garter  king- 
at-arms  proclaimed  the  names  and  titles  of  his 
"princely  Highness."  This  little  matter  of  pomp 
and  glory  —  worldly  vanities,  which  two  minutes 
before  had  been  renounced  —  having  been  duly 
celebrated,  the  organ  again  broke  forth,  playing  what 
was  then  called  the  "  Offertory."  At  this  hint,  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  carried  up  to  the  altar,  where,  by 
the  hands  of  the  lord  treasurer,  he  made  his  first 
offering,  the  dean  of  the  chapel  receiving  the  same. 
So  good  an  example  set  by  the  young  Christian  was 
speedily  followed  by  the  gossips.  These  personages 
presented  for  themselves,  and  not  for  their  constitu- 
ents. The  most  liberal  of  all  was  the  old  Duchess 
of  Richmond,  who  paid  profusely  for  the  honour  of 
standing  for  the  young  prince's  grandmother.  She 
had  come  to  the  palace  in  a  royal  carriage,  escorted 
as  if  she  had  been  Marie  de  Medicis  herself.  Six 
plumed  horses  drew  the  ponderous  vehicle,  around 
which  rode  lords,  and  knights,  and  gentlemen.  To 
the  knights,  who  were  perhaps  representative  knights, 
she  presented  ;^50  each ;  the  coachman  also  received 
£^0  from  her ;  and  each  of  six  running  footmen  was 
made  glad  by  a  gift  of  ;£io.  It  was  well  for  them 
that  they  had  charge  of  a  duchess  and  not  of  a  queen- 
dowager.  When  she  and  her  fellow-gossips  had 
placed  their  offerings  on  the  altar,  their  "  gifts  to  the 
baby"  were  brought  from  the  vestry,  under  a  salute 


CHA'RLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  427 

from  the  organ.  Here,  again,  the  generous-hearted 
old  duchess  was  prodigal,  —  her  gift  being  a  jewel 
worth  jQ'jiOOO.  Moreover,  to  the  Welsh  wet-nurse, 
Mrs.  Walton,  she  gave  a  gold  chain  worth  ;£200 ;  to 
the  midwife  and  ordinary  nurse,  services  of  massiv^e 
plate ;  and  even  to  each  of  the  cradle-rockers,  a  cup, 
saltcellar,  and  a  dozen  silver  spoons !  At  the  chris- 
tening of  Edward  of  Caernarvon,  it  was  the  officiating 
prelate  who  was  prodigally  rewarded ;  at  that  of 
Charles  Stuart,  the  archbishop  was  made  none  the 
richer  in  land ;  costly  jewels  fell  to  the  infant, 
and  the  subordinates  came  off  better  than  their 
superiors. 

From  the  first,  there  was  an  obstinate  self-will  in 
the  otherwise  easy  and  good-natured  Charles.  He 
took  an  early  liking  to  a  billet  of  wood,  from  which 
he  stoutly  refused  to  be  separated,  at  any  time.  He 
lugged  it  with  him  abroad,  and  it  accompanied  him  to 
bed.  The  searchers  after  omens  concluded  that  he 
would  ultimately,  perhaps,  have  an  affection  for 
worthless  people,  or  prove  a  sort  of  sovereign  King 
Log :  and  on  this  occasion  the  soothsayers  were  not 
far  wrong.  Further,  the  young  prince's  fixed  and 
reasonable  aversion  frum  medicine  brought  on  him 
remonstrances,  and  adnlonitory  or  menacing  notes 
from  his  mother ;  but,  as  Charles  wrote  to  his  gov- 
ernor. Cavendish,  afterward  Earl  of  Newcastle,  "  I 
would  not  have  you  take  too  much  physic,  for  it  doth 
always  make  me  worse,  and  I  think  it  will  do  the 
like  with  you."  Such  was  the  little  gentleman  touch- 
ing whom  John  Evelyn  afterward  said,  "  I  do  most 
perfectly  remember  the  jubilee  which  was  universally 
expressed  for  the  happy  birth  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 


428        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

now    Charles   the    Second,  our   most   gracious   sov- 
ereign." 

Cavendish  remained  the  prince's  governor  from 
1638  to  1 64 1,  at  which  period,  for  the  king's  sake, 
and  knowing  himself  to  be  unpopular  with  the  Com- 
mons, he  resigned  that  office,  and  was  succeeded  by 
the  Marquis  of  Hertford.  At  the  earlier  date,  young 
Charles  already  kept  house  apart  from  his  parents, 
as  is  specified  in  the  deed  of  appointment.  The 
deeds  naming  the  respective  governors  of  the  prince 
are,  word  for  word,  the  same  throughout,  except  in 
the  names  of  the  individuals  appointed ;  and  I  select 
the  document  which  confers  on  the  Marquis  of  Hert- 
ford the  governorship  of  Prince  Charles,  it  being 
brief  enough  to  merit  to  be  cited,  even  were  it  less 
rich  than  it  is  in  illustrations  of  the  manners  and 
customs  of  the  times,  and  of  the  affection  gracefully 
expressed  by  the  king  for  "  so  great  a  jewel "  as  his  son 
Charles  Stuart.  After  the  usual  high-sounding  and 
ostentatiously  affectionate  preliminaries,  the  decree 
proceeds  thus  :  *'  We  have  found  it  convenient  for  the 
better  education  of  Prince  Charles,  our  son,  to  remove 
him  out  of  our  own  house,  and  place  him  in  a  house 
apart,  where  he  may  have  better  commodity  to  attend, 
as  well  to  his  studies  as  to  recreations  for  his  health, 
and  so  to  be  continued  for  a  time.  And  for  the  good 
proof  we  have  long  had  of  your  singular  affection  to 
our  person,  and  for  the  trust  we  repose  in  you,  as 
well  in  regard  to  your  zeal  for  religion  as  for  your 
discretion,  we  have  made  choice  of  you  to  have  prin- 
cipal charge  and  custody  as  well  of  the  person  of  our 
said  son,  as  also  the  oversight  of  all  his  household 
and  family  attending  him,  who  being  to  us  so  great 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  429 

a  jewel  as  he  is,  the  charge  Hkewise  is  of  great 
weight  and  care  to  you,  wherefore  we  have  thought 
good  to  accompany  so  great  a  burden  with  sufficient 
authority  to  you  for  the  execution  and  discharge 
thereof :  and  we  therefore  direct  these  our  letters 
patent  to  you,  under  our  Great  Seal  of  England, 
whereby  we  do  give  you  power  and  authority  for  the 
better  execution  of  the  charge  committed  to  you, 
to  command,  rule,  and  direct,  as  well  all  persons 
which  shall  be  of  ordinary  attendance  about  our  son 
the  prince  in  his  house,  in  all  things  that  may  con- 
cern the  safety  of  his  person,  or  the  observation  of 
good  rule  in  his  house,  as  also  all  justices  of  peace, 
mayors,  bailiffs,  headboroughs,  and  all  others  our 
officers  and  ministers  in  places  next  adjoining  to  the 
house  wheresoever  for  the  time  our  said  son  happens 
to  be,  to  be  aiding  and  assisting  you  in  all  things 
concerning  this  your  charge  ;  and,  namely,  in  visiting 
of  houses  in  towns  and  villages,  next  to  the  place  of 
abode  of  our  said  son,  to  discover  infection  of  sick- 
ness, or  any  lewd  or  suspected  persons  that  shall 
presume  to  haunt  near  to  his  said  abode  ;  wherefore 
we  will  and  command  all  justices  of  the  peace, 
mayors,  bailiffs,  headboroughs,  constables,  etc.,  to  be 
ready  and  obedient  to  all  your  directions,  from  time 
to  time,  as  you  shall  have  occasion  to  require  their 
aid  and  assistance,  and  therefore  not  to  fail,  as  they 
will  answer  the  contrary  at  their  peril."  This  deed 
is  signed  by  the  king  himself,  and  dated  from  West- 
minster, August  10,  1 64 1.' 

The  marquis  ("the  Mr.    Seymour"  who  married 
Lady  Arabella  Stuart,  and  was  knighted  when  Charles 

*  Rymer,  vol.  xx. 


43©       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  Dunfermline  was  created  Prince  of  Wales)  was  at 
a  subsequent  period  succeeded  by  the  weak  and  witty 
Earl  of  Berkshire ;  and  something  of  Charles's  care- 
less character  has  been  attributed  to  the  little  zeal  of 
his  governors  to  render  him  better  than  he  was  by 
nature.  Had  he  had  the  benefit  of  the  governorship 
of  Hampden,  as  was  at  one  time  proposed,  his  after 
acts  might  have  proved  as  wise  as  his  sayings  were 
witty.  Not  those  lords,  however,  but  two  notable 
men  had  charge  of  important  branches  of  the  prince's 
education.  Hobbes  of  Malmesbury  instructed  him 
in  mathematics,  and  Charles  reflected  credit  on  his 
teacher.  A  Kentish  clergyman,  Brian  Duppa,  who 
from  a  humble  curacy  had  risen  to  college  offices  of 
which  his  scholarship  rendered  him  worthy,  and  who 
subsequently  died,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  was  charged 
with  making  the  prince  a  classical  and  good  general 
scholar.  Duppa  did  not  succeed  like  Hobbes ;  but 
Charles  loved  the  man,  however  little  he  may  have 
heeded  the  master.  The  latter  was  a  loyal,  learned, 
and  pious  man,  at  whose  sermons  Pepys,  in  after  life, 
sneered  as  being  "  cold ; "  but  considering  how  that 
little  man  was  often  engaged  with  some  pretty  neigh- 
bour while  the  preacher  was  expounding,  we  are 
reluctant  to  judge  of  the  quality  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales's  tutor  by  the  testimony  of  the  gay  clerk 
of  the  Admiralty. 

The  prince's  governors  were  not  all  selected  by  the 
king  and  queen.  When  the  latter  visited  the  Earl  of 
Newcastle  at  Bolsover,  in  Derbyshire,  in  1634,  the 
host  treated  his  guests  with  a  masque  of  welcome, 
including  "a  dance  of  Mechanics,"  by  Ben  Jonson, 
and  the  taste  displayed,  and  the  hospitality  exercised, 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  431 

are  said  to  have  led  to  the  appointment  of  the  earl, 
four  years  later.  He  was  a  stately  and  foolish,  but 
brave,  man.  Hertford  was  a  man  of  another  char- 
acter. He  was  the  great-grandson  of  the  Protector 
Somerset.  This  Protector's  eldest  son,  Lord  Hert- 
ford, was  the  husband  of  Lady  Katherine  Grey,  sister 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey.  This  marriage,  broken  by 
Elizabeth,  was  declared  valid  by  the  Stuarts.  From 
it  was  descended  the  Prince  of  Wales's  second  gov- 
ernor, who  had,  when  plain  "  Mr.  Seymour,"  as  much 
offended  James  L  by  privately  marrying  Lady  Ara- 
bella Stuart,  as  his  ancestor  had  offended  Elizabeth 
by  marrying  Lady  Katherine  Grey.  In  the  widower 
of  Arabella,  the  representative  of  the  Greys,  and  the 
hereditary  leader  of  the  Calvinistic  party,  the  opposi- 
tion saw  a  man  who  seemed  to  them  fitter  to  be 
placed  near  the  Prince  of  Wales  than  Lord  New- 
castle. Hertford  was  accordingly  forced  upon  the 
king,  who  found  in  him  the  noblest  of  the  cavaliers 
—  faithful  beyond  the  scaffold  and  the  grave.  Lord 
Berkshire  was  more  simple  and  less  stately  than 
Newcastle,  and  the  least  efficient  of  the  governors  of 
Prince  Charles,  whose  boyhood,  under  them  and  his 
tutors,  was  not  a  joyous  period.  It  opened  brightly 
enough,  but  the  dissensions  between  king  and  Parlia- 
ment broke  up  his  home  and  separated  him  from  his 
mother  in  his  early  youth. ^  There  is  a  letter  (printed 
in  Halliwell's  collection)  written  by  him  from  Roys- 
ton,  in  March,  1642,  to  Mary,  Princess  of  Orange 
(his  young  sister,  married  the  preceding  year),  in 
which  the  prince  says:  "My  father  is  very  much 
disconsolate  and  troubled,  partly  for  my  royal 
'The  queen  escaped  to  Holland  in  February,  1642. 


432       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

mother's  and  your  absence,  partly  for  the  disturb- 
ances of  this  kingdom."  He  daily  prays,  adds  the 
prince,  for  a  perfect  concordance  between  the  king 
and  his  opponents,  for  *<  the  removal  of  the  grievances 
of  the  country,  and  the  renewing  of  our  decayed 
joys."  And  after  some  very  stilted  passages  and 
illogical  phrases,  and  a  confusion  of  epithets,  such 
as  that  of  calling  the  overthrow  of  the  Irish  rebel, 
O'Neill,  a  "sad  misfortune,"  —  which  it  undoubtedly 
was  for  the  rebel,  —  the  young  letter-writer  character- 
istically adds,  "Dear  sister,  we  are,  as  much  as  we 
may,  merry ;  and,  more  than  we  would,  sad,  in 
respect  that  we  cannot  alter  the  present  distemper 
of  these  turbulent  times."  In  conclusion,  the  prince 
informs  the  "  Princess  of  Aurania,"  as  he  styles  her, 
that  his  "  father's  resolution  is  now  for  York,  where 
he  intends  to  reside,  to  see  the  event  or  sequel  to 
these  bad,  unpropitious  beginnings,  whither  you  may 
direct  your  letter." 

The  prince,  when  he  wrote  this  epistle,  had  been 
for  about  a  fortnight  the  companion  of  his  father, 
first  at  Greenwich,  then  at  Theobalds,  and  afterward 
at  Royston.  Lord  Hertford  had  taken  his  ward  to 
the  first-named  place  in  spite  of  a  parliamentary  order 
to  the  contrary.  At  Theobalds,  the  king  was  waited 
on  by  a  committee  of  both  houses,  requesting  him  to 
leave  the  Prince  of  Wales  at  St.  James's  or  any  other 
of  his  houses  near  London ;  but  Charles  replied,  that 
"for  his  son  he  should  take  that  care  of  him  which 
would  justify  him  to  God  as  a  father,  and  to  his 
dominions  as  a  king." 

With  the  heir  to  the  throne,  Charles  made  his  prog- 
ress toward  York,  leisurely  and  mournfully  visiting 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  433 

his  different  (and  now  desolate)  country-seats  by  the 
way.  From  March  to  August,  1642,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  with  the  fugitive  court  of  York,  and  when 
the  king  raised  his  standard  at  Nottingham,  and 
seriously  began  the  contest  which  was  to  end  with  his 
ruin,  the  Yorkshire  gentry  sent  with  him  *'two  or 
three  troops  of  good  horse  for  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
regiment,  to  be  commanded  by  Sir  Thomas  Byron."  * 
At  that  melancholy  opening  of  the  great  struggle, 
"to  occupy  the  minds  of  his  followers,"  says  Mr. 
Warburton,  "probably  rather  than  for  any  other 
motive,  the  king  then  held  a  Chapter  of  the  Garter, 
with  such  state  as  was  practicable  under  the  circum- 
stances. This  was  to  do  honour  to  his  young  kins- 
man, Prince  Rupert,  and  was  well  calculated  to 
impart  a  chivalric  character  to  the  raising  of  the 
standard.  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales,  at  the  same 
time  received  the  honour  of  the  Garter."  Mr.  War- 
burton  adds  that  "this  was  the  only  Chapter  ever 
held  out  of  Windsor ;  "  in  which  statement  he  is  in 
error,  Henry  VI.  having  held  a  Chapter  at  the  Lion 
Inn,  at  Brentford,  for  the  creation  of  Sir  Thomas 
Hastings  and  Alonzo  d'Almade. 

I  have  noticed  the  Prince  of  Wales's  regiment  of 
cavalry ;  the  progress  of  events  brought  it  with  the 
royal  army  to  Edgehill,  where  the  king  fought  for 
access  to  the  London  road,  from  which  Essex  was 
unable  to  keep  him.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  then 
in  his  thirteenth  year,  and  the  king  appointed  him, 
on  this  occasion,  captain  of  a  troop  in  the  regiment 
of  horse  named  after  him,  and  took  him  and  his 
brother  James  to  witness,  rather  than  join  in,  the 
*  Warburton's  "  Rupert  and  the  Cavaliers,"  vol.  i.  p.  319. 


434       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

fight  SO  obstinately  contested  on  Edgehill  field.  As 
the  issue  began  to  look  doubtful,  the  king  com- 
manded the  old  Earl  of  Dorset  to  convey  the  young 
princes  to  a  safe  distance  from  the  battle.  Dorset, 
like  the  tutor  of  young  Rutland  at  Wakefield,  would 
have  willingly  taken  the  two  boys  into  the  thickest 
of  the  fight,  there  to  learn  the  art  of  war,  or  die 
before  the  instruction  was  completed ;  but  the  brave 
old  man  scorned  a  commission  which  drew  him  away 
from  danger.  "I  will  not  be  thought  a  coward," 
exclaimed  that  gallant  heart,  "  for  e'er  a  prince's  son 
in  Christendom ! "  and  therewith  went  forward  to 
encounter  peril  and  win  glory.  At  that  moment,  the 
king  and  his  sons,  few  guards  being  near  them,  were 
in  imminent  danger.  In  attendance  on  the  young 
princes  was  a  philosophic  man  of  peace,  Doctor 
Harvey,  the  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  and  to  him  the  king  gave  directions  to  with- 
draw the  boys  to  a  neighbouring  hill,  whence  they 
might  view  the  fight,  in  comparative  security.  It 
was  a  bright  October  Sunday  afternoon  of  the  year 
1642  —  the  23d  of  the  month.  Harvey,  accompanied 
by  Mr.  Hyde,  and  a  few  of  the  king's  pensioners,  by 
way  of  escort,  accordingly  withdrew  to  a  neighbour- 
ing eminence,  where  the  great  physician  seated  him- 
self behind  a  hedge,  took  out  a  book,  and  forgot  the 
bloody  game  playing  out,  on  the  plain  below.  Not 
so  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  his  brother.  The  two 
boys,  side  by  side,  gazed  through  the  hedge,  and 
marked  the  perplexing  chances  and  changes  of  the 
fray  —  the  royal  standard  lost  and  won,  and  loyal 
Lindsay  shot  down  at  the  head  of  his  valiant  infan- 
try.    The  princes  were  still  gazing,  and  Harvey  was 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  435 

absorbed  in  his  book,  when  a  cannon-ball  came  crash- 
ing through  the  hedge,  and  roused  the  tranquil  group 
to  a  sense  of  their  peril.  The  philosopher  closed  his 
volume,  and,  rising,  took  the  prince  and  duke  by  the 
hand,  and  under  instructions  from  the  king,  Hyde 
and  Harvey  conveyed  them  on  to  Edgeworth. 

From  this  period  to  1645  we  hear  no  more  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  in  the  field.  Meanwhile  Rupert 
won  Chalgrave,  and  the  Parliamentarians  lost  Strat- 
ton,  and  there  had  been  an  indecisive  but  bloody 
fray  at  Lansdown ;  and  Wilmot  gained  the  day  for 
the  king  at  Roundway  Down,  and  at  Newbury  vic- 
tory sat  not  decisively  on  either  helm ;  and  Marston 
Moor  had  shaken,  and  Naseby  was  about  to  annihi- 
late, the  royal  cause,  before  the  young  prince,  who 
had  idly  enjoyed  the  little  court  at  Oxford,  where 
his  mother  presided  during  the  period  after  her  sec- 
ond return  to  England,  and  whence  she  had  again 
departed  to  the  Continent,  was  despatched  into  the 
west,  "to  unboy  him,"  as  the  king  remarked,  "by 
putting  him  into  some  action  and  acquaintance  with 
business  out  of  his  (the  king's)  own  sight."  Such 
was  the  king's  public  declaration,  but  he  is  said  to 
have  privately  resolved  that  the  prince  should  merely 
"  keep  his  court  in  the  west,  that  they  might  be  sep- 
arated from  each  other,  without  engaging  himself 
in  any  martial  action,  or  being  so  much  as  present  in 
any  army."  '  The  prince  had  with  him  his  weak 
and  foolish  governor,  the  Earl  of  Berkshire,  whose 
weakness  and  folly  were  to  be  controlled,  so  the 
king  said,  by  the  prince's  council.  The  council 
themselves  were  not  overjoyed  with  their  commis- 
*  Hoskins's  "  Charles  in  the  Channel  Islands." 


436       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

sion,  and  perhaps  the  prince's  old  tutor,  Duppa  (now 
Bishop  of  Salisbury),  was  the  best  friend  who  accom- 
panied for  a  time  the  royal  and  youthful  generalis- 
simo :  such  was  his  title.  Rupert  had  requested 
that  there  might  be  no  general-in-chief  in  England 
but  the  Prince  of  Wales;  but  he  bore  the  more 
modest  title  of  leader  of  the  western  force,  when,  on 
the  5  th  of  March,  1645,  father  and  son  parted  at 
Abingdon,  never  to  meet  again. 

When  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  thus  appointed 
generalissimo  of  a  not  yet  existent  royal  army  of  the 
west,  the  struggle  between  king  and  Parliament  hav- 
ing then  nearly  drawn  to  a  close,  he  was  fifteen  years 
of  age,  and  the  king  most  anxious  for  his  safety. 
The  young  generalissimo  was  subject  to  a  council, 
composed  of  Richmond,  Hyde,  Southampton,  Capel, 
Hopton,  and  Culpepper,  to  be  rid  of  whom,  Digby 
and  Ashburnham,  who  remained  with  the  king,  re- 
joiced exceedingly.  The  military  career  of  Charles 
of  St.  James's  is  in  remarkable  contrast  with  that  of 
Edward  of  Woodstock.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the 
latter  ever  to  victoriously  lead  his  own  countrymen 
against  a  foreign  enemy.  It  was  the  mischance 
of  the  Stuart  ever  to  find  his  own  countrymen 
triumphant  against  their  opponents  on  the  king's 
side.  **  As  generalissimo,"  he  was  merely  conducted 
in  humiliating  progress  from  Oxford,  through  Bath, 
to  Bristol,  where  the  prince  lived  for  a  time  in  Lord 
Hopton's  house,  entirely  at  his  host's  expense.  The 
king  was  unable  to  provide  his  son  with  a  single 
penny,  or  furnish  him  with  a  single  man. 

From  Bristol,  the  plague  raging  there,  Charles 
moved  to  Bridge  water,  where  he  found  the  old  super- 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  437 

intendent  of  his  nursery,  Mrs.  Wyndham,  wife  of  the 
governor,  Colonel  Wyndham.  This  lady  kindled  a 
faction  in  the  prince's  household,  spoke  with  rude 
familiarity  to  him  in  public,  sneered  at  the  council, 
asked  for  places  for  her  own  kindred,  and  fulfilled 
the  king's  dread  lest  she  should  turn  her  influence 
over  his  son  to  bad  account,  knowing  as  he  did 
that  she  was  in  the  habit  of  speaking  disdainfully 
of  his  sacred  person  to  his  son.'  The  lady,  in  short, 
took  entire  possession  of  the  young  gentleman,  over 
whom  she  speedily  began  to  exert  such  very  unwhole- 
some influence,  that  his  alarmed  council  very  uncere- 
moniously laid  hands  upon  the  royal  heir  and  carried 
him  off  to  Exeter,  thence  to  Pendennis,  and  finally 
to  the  Scilly  Isles. 

The  council  did  well,  for  bad  company  gathered 
around  the  prince.  At  Barnstaple,  for  instance,  a 
young  fellow  named  Wheeler  intruded  himself  with 
great  boldness  about  the  prince,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Salisbury  complained  to  the  council  that  Wheeler 
"was  very  debauched,  and  of  so  filthy  a  behaviour 
that  it  was  not  to  be  spoken  of,  and  that  Sir 
Hugh  Wyndham  had  complained  of  some  beastliness 
of  his  that  was  not  to  be  named."  Clarendon 
adds  that  "both  Wyndham  and  Wheeler  were  sub- 
sequently forbidden  to  come  near  the  prince's 
court." 

Before  embarking  for  Scilly,  the  prince  had  re- 
signed his  command  to  Lord  Hopton,  who  fought 
and  lost  the  battle  of  Torrington,  the  dreaded  conse- 
quences of  which  drove  Charles  from  Launceston  to 
the  Cornish  Isles,  where  he  arrived  in  the  Phcenixy 
" '  Charles  in  the  Channel  Islands." 


43^        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

on  the  4th  of  March.  Lady  Fanshaw,  who  was  of 
the  party,  certifies  to  their  great  privations,  lack  of 
clothes,  with  not  meat  and  fuel  enough  to  last  the 
court  for  a  month.  Nevertheless,  "there  was  no 
more  thought  of  leaving  the  island  than  of  going  to 
Virginia." 

Previously  to  his  reaching  that  place  of  safety,  it 
had  been  proposed  that  the  prince  should  be  con- 
veyed to  France.  In  "  Perfect  Passages  "  (January 
2^^  1646)  we  find  it  said:  "The  match  of  Prince 
Charles  with  the  Prince  of  Orange's  daughter,'* 
writes  a  journalist,  "  is  still  on  foot.  The  chief  offi- 
cers in  Cornwall  have  used  their  endeavours  to  send 
him  beyond  sea  into  France,  or  elsewhere;  but  his 
Highness  puts  them  off,  and  cries,  and  stamps,  and 
vexeth,  and  saith  he  will  not  leave  the  kingdom,  he 
had  rather  come  into  the  Parliament,  if  he  cannot 
stand  out  long." 

There  was  a  noisy,  merry,  and  yet  anxious  court, 
for  a  brief  period,  in  St.  Mary's  Isle ;  but  soon  was 
there  also  such  chance  of  Batten  or  some  other  Par- 
liamentary sea-captain,  swooping  down  on  the  de- 
fenceless place  and  snatching  up  the  prince,  that  his 
guardian  council,  declining  to  carry  him  to  France, 
as  his  fugitive  mother  there  required,  resolved  to 
wend  with  him  to  Jersey.  The  Parliament  had  lov- 
ingly invited  him  to  come  to  them,  and  had,  with  a 
fleet,  endeavoured  to  get  at  him,  but  a  storm  dis- 
persed it,  and  with  the  first  fair  weather  Charles 
escaped. 

While,  however,  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  yet  in 
St.  Mary's  Isle,  the  king  contrived,  through  his 
agent  Montreuil,  to  convey  to  Henrietta  Maria,  then 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  439 

in  France,  the  pictures  that  belonged  to  both  his 
sons.  The  prince  had  not  yet  left  Scilly  for  Jersey, 
when  the  king  wrote  to  his  wife  to  express  his  desire 
that  the  heir  to  the  throne  should  be  with  his  mother. 
"It  is  true,"  he  writes,  in  March,  1646,  "my  person 
will  not  want  danger,  but  I  want  not  probability  if 
reasonable  good  security,  the  chiefest  of  which  is 
Prince  Charles  his  being  with  thee,  concerning  whom 
I  desire,  as  thou  lovest  me,  first,  that  thou  wouldest 
not  endeavour  to  alter  him  in  religion,  nor  so  much 
as  trouble  him  upon  that  point.  Next,  that  thou 
would  not  thyself,  nor  suffer  him  to  be  engaged  in 
any  treaty  of  marriage,  for  I  believe  that  with  the 
Prince  of  Orange  his  daughter  to  be  broken,  without 
having  my  approbation." 

Meanwhile,  Henrietta  Maria,  who  had  protested 
against  her  son  remaining  in  a  locality  so  defenceless 
as  the  Cornish  Isles,  looking  on  his  possible  capture 
as  the  certain  annihilation  of  the  royal  cause,  hailed 
with  joy  the  resolution  of  a  change  to  Jersey.  "  I 
have  strained "  (thus  she  writes  to  Hyde,  April  4, 
1646)  "to  assist  you  with  present  provisions,  ship- 
ping, and  money  necessary  for  the  prince's  remove 
to  Jersey ;  where,  be  confident  of  it,  he  shall  want 
nothing."  She  adds,  that  if  storms  or  foes  should 
compel  him,  on  his  way,  "to  touch  in  France,"  she 
had  solemn  promise  from  the  French  government 
that  "he  should  have  all  freedom  and  assistance 
from  thence  in  his  immediate  passage  thither,  which 
is  granted  with  great  cheerfulness  and  civility."  ' 

Twelve  days  after  the  letter,  from  which  the  above 
extract  is  made,  was  written,  namely,  on  the  i6th  of 

*  "  Letters  of  Henrietta  Maria,"  edited  by  Mrs.  Everett  Green. 


440       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

April,  1646,  the  frigate  Proud  Black  Eagle ^  of  160 
tons  and  twenty-four  guns,  set  sail  from  Scilly, 
carrying  Charles  and  his  council  and  officials;  two 
smaller  vessels  followed,  conveying  his  troops  and 
household  servants,  to  the  amount  of  three  hundred 
individuals.  During  the  few  days  the  passage  lasted, 
Charles  himself  for  several  hours  each  day  took  charge 
of  the  helm,  and  gaily  steered  the  bark  which  carried 
him  from  England.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  then 
a  wanderer  on  the  seas,  his  mother  was  an  exile  in 
France,  and  his  father  was  in  the  power  of  his  ques- 
tionable friends,  the  Scots. 

Jersey  received  the  princely  wanderer  with  an  out- 
burst of  loyal  exultation.  The  islanders,  who  were, 
however,  forced  to  let  lodging  gratis  to  the  hangers 
on  of  the  court,  were  half  mad  with  delight  at  having 
amongst  them  a  king's  son,  who  charmed  them  by 
his  affability  and  joyous  temperament,  and  who  ad- 
mitted them  to  witness  his  dining  in  state  —  where 
he  was  served  with  feudal  ceremony,  the  board  re- 
splendent with  gold  and  silver  plate,  the  prince  un- 
covering while  a  doctor  of  divinity  said  grace,  the 
doctor  then  standing  a  little  behind  him  during  the 
repast,  and  groups  of  cavaliers  circling  near  him, 
with  their  plumed  hats  held  in  their  gloved  hands. 
Then  carvers  cut  and  tasted,  and  pages  served 
the  prince  on  bended  knee,  and  a  youthful  cup- 
bearer, reverently  handing  him  the  goblet,  stooped 
and  held  a  golden  cup  beneath  his  master's  chin, 
that  no  drop  of  the  wine  might  soil  the  princely 
garments. 

With  such  splendour  before  them,  they  bore  easily 
the  pleasant  princely  command  to  obey  a  fixed  tariff 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  44 1 

for  the  sale  of  provisions,  under  the  penalty  of  being 
publicly  flogged.  And  if  they  were  heavily  taxed  for 
the  new  forts  about  to  be  raised,  the  plans  of  these 
were  drawn  by  the  prince  himself,  and  the  islanders 
approved  of  the  skill  of  a  gay  young  gentleman  who 
had  studied  mathematics  to  such  purpose  under  Mr. 
Hobbes  of  Malmesbury. 

There,  too,  the  Prince  of  Wales  exercised  a  pre- 
rogative granted  by  his  father  —  that  of  conferring 
titles  of  honour  on  meritorious  cavaliers ;  this  office 
he  performed  with  admired  grace ;  and  the  islanders 
had  admiration,  too,  for  his  piety  as  well  as  for  his 
graceful  carriage;  and  beheld  him  going  in  state 
to,  and  praying  in  state  at,  the  church  in  St.  Heliers, 
with  infinite  pleasure  and  edification.  Profusion  of 
flowers  and  herbs  of  sweet  savour  were  cast  about 
the  aisle  along  which  he  passed,  and  on  the  carpet 
of  state,  and  around  the  throned  chair,  and  on  the 
table  placed  for  his  convenience.  The  Gothic  pillars 
of  the  building  were  enveloped  in  verdant  branches 
and  wreaths  of  flowers ;  and,  true  illustration  of  that 
royal  ignorance,  helplessness,  or  indiflPerence,  which 
used  to  be  thought  so  dignified,  there  stood  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  prince  a  royal  commissioner,  one 
Doctor  Poley,  who  handed  him  the  prayer-book,  and 
industriously  looking  up  the  passages  of  Scripture 
cited  by  the  preacher,  submitted  them  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  young  gentleman  lolling  in  the  chair 
of  state. 

The  English  service  a  little  puzzled  the  Anglo- 
Norman  islanders,  but  they  admired  even  what  they 
failed  to  comprehend ;  and  to  them  a  prince  who 
went  to  church  thrice  every   week,    and   took  the 


442       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

sacrament  in  public  with  a  devout  bearing  they  had 
seldom  witnessed,  was  a  source  of  fascination  to 
which  they  delivered  themselves  with  alacrity. 

The  chief  recreation  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  at 
Jersey  consisted  in  his  being  afloat,  and  managing 
a  little  yacht  or  barge  sent  to  him  from  St.  Maloes. 
No  one  dared  touch  the  tiller  of  the  gilded  boat  but 
he  —  the  royal  helmsman,  who,  seated  on  velvet 
cushions  in  the  stern-sheets,  and  with  companions 
round  him  careless  as  himself,  joyously  sailed,  or, 
with  sweeps  out,  glided  about  the  picturesque  and 
land-locked  bay  in  safety,  thoughtlessness,  and  rare 
enjoyment. 

While  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  disporting  himself 
in  Jersey,  sailing  on  its  circumjacent  waters,  or  keep- 
ing gay  household  at  St.  Heliers,  his  father  was 
urging  Henrietta  Maria  "  to  continue  the  same  active 
endeavours  for  Prince  Charles  as  thou  hast  done  for 
me,  and  not  whine  for  my  misfortunes  in  a  retired 
way,  but  like  thy  father's  daughter,  vigorously  assist 
Prince  Charles  to  regain  his  own."  Learning  some- 
thing probably  of  the  light  and  unrestrained  course 
of  life  led  by  the  prince  in  the  Norman  isle,  the  king 
writes  to  the  queen,  from  Newcastle,  on  the  28th  of 
May,  1646:  "I  think  not  Prince  Charles  safe  in 
Jersey,  therefore  send  for  him  to  wait  upon  thee  with 
all  speed  (for  his  preservation  is  the  greatest  hope 
for  my  safety),  and  in  God's  name  let  him  stay  with 
thee  till  it  be  seen  what  ply  my  business  will  take ; 
and  for  my  sake,  let  the  world  see  that  the  queen 
seeks  not  to  alter  his  conscience.  As  for  his  going 
to  Ireland,  I  am  not  for  it,  yet  if  the  queen  should 
command   him  to  go,  I  will  avow  her  in  it ;  for  I 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  443 

know  if  the  queen  does  it,  she  will  have  good  reason 
for  it."  ' 

Charles  also  wrote  to  his  son,  bidding  him  obey 
her  **  in  everything  except  religion,  concerning  which 
I  am  confident  she  will  not  trouble  you ; "  and  this 
letter  Henrietta  forwarded  to  Jersey  by  Sir  Dudley 
Wyatt,  with  a  note  in  which  she  writes  :  "  Your 
coming  hither  is  the  security  of  the  king  your  father  ; 
therefore  make  all  the  haste  you  can  to  show  yourself 
a  dutiful  son.  There  is  no  time  to  be  lost,  therefore 
lose  none,  but  come  speedily." 

The  queen  wrote  in  equally  urgent  terms  to  Lord 
Culpepper,  impressing  upon  him  the  necessity  of  con- 
vincing the  Prince  of  Wales's  council  that  "the 
king's  commands  must  be  executed."  Meanwhile, 
the  parliamentary  party  took  an  interest  of  another 
sort  in  this  important  young  personage.  "I  find," 
writes  the  king  to  his  wife,  from  Newcastle,  June  3, 
1646,  "that  their  style  somewhat  changes  whenso- 
ever they  speak  to  me  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  ex- 
pressing a  great  desire  that  they  should  have  the 
comfort  of  his  company,  which,  God  knows,  is  not 
for  my  sake,  but  for  their  own  ends."  France ! 
France !  that  is  the  only  port  of  safety  he  can  see, 
"  whether  it  be  for  contributing  to  a  happy  peace  or 
a  gallant  war;  wherefore  now  command  him,  in  my 
name,  to  wait  upon  thee,  and  not  go  to  Denmark.'* 
So  intent  was  the  king  on  getting  the  Prince  of 
Wales  into  France,  that  he  wrote  a  second  letter  to 
the  queen  on  the  same  day,  June  3d,  and  to  the 
same  purpose,  ending  it  with  the  words :  "  If  this 
finds  any  opposition  at  the  place  where  he  now  is,  I 

*  "  Charles  I.  in  1646.   Letters,  etc."   Edited  by  John  Bruce,  F.  S.  A. 


444       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

would  rather  have  thee  endure  the  trouble  of  going 
to  fetch  him  thyself,  than  to  suffer  him  any  longer 
to  be  absent  from  thee." 

Added  to  all  this  is  to  be  noted  a  letter  from 
Mazarin,  shown  to  the  prince,  in  which  the  cardinal 
stated,  as  of  his  own  knowledge,  that  a  conspiracy 
existed  in  England  to  seize  upon  and  surrender  the 
prince  to  the  Parliament  for  a  sum  of  twenty  thou- 
sand pistoles.  More  moving  still,  the  queen  sent 
him  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  the  portrait  of  his 
cousin,  the  grand  heiress.  Mile,  de  Montpensier. 
And  therewith  came  Jermyn,  and  Digby,  and  Wid- 
drington  and  Wentworth ;  and  these  lords  overruled 
the  scruples  of  the  council ;  and  Charles,  contemplat- 
ing the  portrait,  the  money,  and  the  prospects  of  a 
joyous  life  in  France,  proclaimed  his  obedience  to 
his  parents,  took  grave  leave  of  his  doubting  tutors 
and  counsellors,  and  on  the  25th  of  June,  supported 
on  the  arms  of  Jermyn  and  Digby,  embarked  for 
France,  after  a  sojourn  of  ten  weeks  in  the  island, 
where  all  that  remains  of  him,  as  a  personal  memento 
of  his  visit,  is  one  clumsily  made  leather  riding-boot, 
preserved  in  the  armoury  at  Elizabeth  Castle. 

The  fugitive  prince  reached  St.  Germains  about 
the  middle  of  July,  unaided  and  unwelcomed  by  the 
French  authorities.  Masters  of  ceremonies  were 
hard  put  to  it  to  settle  the  forms  to  be  observed  on 
his  introduction  to  French  royalty,  and  Mazarin  was 
busied  in  assuring  the  English  Parliament  that  the 
prince's  residence  in  France  should  not  be  a  passage 
toward  a  restoration.  In  August,  Culpepper  writes 
from  St.  Germains  to  Chancellor  Hyde,  at  Jersey, 
with  a  superb  indication  of  his  ignorance  of  French : 


CHARLES  OF.  ST.  JAMES'S  445 

"  The  prince  goeth  this  week  to  Fountain  Bileau  for 
four  or  five  days ;  "  and  a  week  later,  in  a  letter  from 
John  Jane,  at  St.  Germains,  to  a  friend  in  the  loyal 
island,  the  writer  says :  "  The  French  allow  the 
prince  nothing  of  their  great  promises  ;  and  I  think 
the  corte  wish  themselves  at  Jarsey  agayne."  At 
Fontainebleau,  as  Murray  writes  to  Hyde,  "the 
prince  was  received  as  civilly  and  with  as  much  re- 
spect as  could  be."  That  is,  the  boy-king  and  his 
mother,  Anne  of  Austria,  met  Charles  a  league  or  two 
from  the  palace,  took  him  into  their  coach,  and  so 
conducted  him  to  the  royal  residence  in  the  forest ; 
and,  says  Murray,  "  though  we  are  not  to  be  restored 
by  ceremonies,  yet  these  civilities  are  better  than 
neglects."  Murray  intimates  that  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  so  borne  himself  that  he  was  beloved  by 
the  women  as  well  as  the  men,  but  he  bewails  the 
unpleasant  fact  that,  however  merry  the  English 
court  in  France  may  be,  they  are  all,  from  the  prince 
downward,  as  poor  as  they  are  gaily  careless. 

The  ceremonious  formalities  of  the  three  or  four 
days  passed  at  Fontainebleau,  the  salutations,  bow- 
ings, curtseyings,  the  mock  humility  offering  Charles 
precedence,  and  then  coolly  assuming  it  over  him, 
was  in  some  degree  compensated  for  by  huntings  and 
pleasant  visits  to  radiant  court  ladies,  and  finally,  by 
the  introduction  to  the  "  Grande  Mademoiselle,"  the 
great  heiress,  Mile,  de  Montpensier,  daughter  of 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  a  damsel  with  a  dowry  that 
might  have  tempted  an  emperor. 

It  was  the  dowry  of  the  "  Grande  Mademoiselle  " 
that  formed  her  chief  merit  in  the  eyes  of  poor  Hen- 
rietta Maria,  who  was  determined  to  secure  it  and 


446       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  lady  for  her  son.  Mile,  de  Montpensier  was  an 
extremely  dashing,  self-willed,  well-favoured,  auda- 
cious girl  of  nineteen,  coquette  to  her  finger-ends, 
and  accomplished  in  all  the  French  arts  which  availed 
so  little  against  Charles  when  the  young  prince  had 
gained  more  years,  more  courage,  and  a  little  more 
experience.  When  the  Prince  of  Wales's  anxious 
mother  presented  her  son  to  Mademoiselle,  the  latter 
saw  before  her  a  tall,  well-formed  lad  of  sixteen,  with 
ruddy-brown  cheeks,  like  a  ribstone-pippin,  long, 
clustering,  dark- brown  hair,  and  eyes  as  brilliant  as 
they  were  black.  The  young  queen  of  coquettes, 
with  all  the  right  and  might  of  her  additional  years, 
studied  her  youthful  and  silent  adorer.  Henrietta 
left  them  alone  to  cultivate  a  closer  acquaintance,  but 
she  had  also  —  wonderful  circumstance  for  a  French 
mother  —  left  her  son  without  the  means  to  attain 
such  an  end.  She  had  forgotten  to  instruct  him  in 
her  own  tongue,  at  all  events  sufficiently  to  enable 
him  to  express  himself  in  it.  **  Now,"  says  the 
Grande  Mademoiselle  in  her  memoirs,  "what  could 
I  do  with  a  young  fellow  who  could  not  speak 
French  } "  Charles  looked,  smiled,  spoke  English, 
and  —  worse  than  speaking  no  French  at  all  —  spoke 
broken  French,  which  from  an  English  throat  is  at 
once  the  most  odious  and  ridiculous  sound  that  ever 
was  uttered.  To  Mademoiselle  it  was  all  as  nothing  : 
and  "  what  could  I  reply,"  she  asks,  "  to  a  lover  who 
had  nothing  to  say  } "  and  then,  contemplating  that 
graceful  head,  the  fresh  beauty  of  youth  gracing  the 
dark  brow,  she  remarks,  "  Could  he  only  have 
spoken  for  himself.  Heaven  only  knows  what  might 
then  have  happened !  " 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  447 

The  following  this  superb  coquette,  however,  had 
its  particular  attractions  for  the  Prince  of  Wales; 
and  the  dashing  and  imperious  young  lady  received 
his  homage  as  a  matter  of  course ;  never  touched  by 
it,  but  speculating  the  while  on  the  possibility  of  her 
winning  the  hand  of  the  young  Louis  XIV.,  or  of  the 
Emperor  of  Germany.  The  silent  yet  assiduous 
prince  had  formidable  rivals  in  the  potentates  whom 
the  Montpensier  chose  to  place  on  the  list  of  men 
whom  she  might  condescend  to  marry.  Meanwhile 
Charles  was  first  in  her  train  at  every  f^te,  nearest  to 
her  at  every  play,  always  prompt,  plumed  hat  in  hand, 
to  escort  her  to  or  from  her  ponderous  carriage,  and 
altogether  serving  an  apprenticeship  in  the  courts  of 
love  which  stood  him  well  when  his  hand,  a  "  'pren- 
tice hand  "  no  longer,  touched  the  responding  fingers 
of  the  Lucys,  the  Barbaras,  the  Eleanors,  and  of 
other  nymphs  a  score,  who  listened  to  him  after 
youth  had  vanished  from  his  brow,  and  when  a  sar- 
castic expression  ever  played  around  a  mouth  which, 
even  in  his  salad  days,  was  the  worst  feature  in 
his  face. 

But  Henrietta  Maria  desired  to  see  in  her  son  a 
thriving  lover,  and  not  the  mere  lackey  cavalier  of 
the  laughing  beauty  of  the  French  court.  She  as- 
sumed, or  was  induced  to  believe,  that  the  lady  was 
willing,  but  that  the  swain  was  indifferent,  and  her 
woman's  wit  resolved  upon  a  course  that  was  to 
render  the  said  swain  subdued  in  completeness  of 
love  to  the  fairest  of  nymphs  out  of  Arcadia.  Some 
grand  festival  was  about  to  be  celebrated  at  court ; 
some  occasion  when  beauty  put  on  a  panoply  of 
charms  which  should  be  irresistible.     At  this  toilet 


448       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

for  conquest,  Henrietta  Maria  had  arranged  that  she 
herself  would  array  the  young  French  beauty,  and 
that  the  younger  Prince  of  Wales  should  be  present 
to  witness  the  unusual  spectacle,  under  colour  of  an 
assistant  at  the  ceremony.  And  as  the  Queen  of 
England  decked  the  French  coquette,  Charles  stood 
by,  candle  in  hand,  moving  as  he  was  bidden,  from 
right  to  left  and  left  to  right,  now  extending  a  hand 
to  adjust  the  brilliant  chain  on  Dian's  snowy  shoul- 
ders, now  receding  a  foot  or  two  to  view  a  craftily 
designed  effect  and  give  his  required  opinion  as 
to  the  taste  from  which  it  sprung.  In  short,  the 
diamond  was  played  before  him  till,  dazzled  by  every 
separate  ray,  he  became,  as  it  was  supposed,  blinded 
by  the  concentrated  splendour  when  Mademoiselle 
turned  from  the  toilette-throne,  a  little  more  dressed 
and  not  much  less  beautiful  than  Anadyomene  her- 
self. 

The  stricken  squire  attached  himself  nearer  than 
ever  to  tend  this  well-graced  beauty,  happy  in  his 
service,  and  seemingly  not  thinking  of  her  heart.  On 
a  subsequent  occasion,  Anne  of  Austria  tried  her  skil- 
ful hand  on  the  tiring  of  the  nymph  for  a  court  ball 
at  which  the  latter  appeared,  as  Madame  de  Motte- 
ville  assures  us,  "as  if  all  the  beauties  and  riches 
of  nature  had  been  exhausted  to  contribute  to  the 
adornment  of  this  fair  creature."  A  chorus  of  adorers 
acknowledged  the  powers  of  face  and  form  and  adorn- 
ments adorned  by  her,  as  she  entered  the  ballroom. 
The  young  king  ceded  to  her  his  throne,  and  with 
the  Prince  of  Wales  sat  on  the  steps  of  the  dais 
at  her  feet.  She  felt  an  empress,  and  does  not 
fail    in    her    memoirs     to    avow    that    fact.      She 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  449 

gloried  in  having  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  below 
her  footstool,  where  several  of  the  blood-royal  had 
taken  their  places.  She  felt  an  empress,  and  she 
says,  **  From  the  throne  to  which  my  high  birth  fully 
entitled  me,  I  could  not  help  looking  down  upon  the 
Prince  of  Wales  with  my  heart  as  well  as  my  eyes, 
for  my  mind  was  filled  with  the  idea  of  espousing  the 
emperor."  She  had  been  told  that  the  Germans 
longed  for  her,  that  the  Queen  of  France  would  aid 
her  to  that  greatness,  "and  under  those  circum- 
stances," asks  the  "  Grande  Mademoiselle,"  "  how 
could  I  do  otherwise  than  regard  Prince  Charles  as 
an  object  of  pity  ? " 

The  prince,  and  his  acute  mother  also,  became 
sensible  of  the  altered  feeling  which  took  the  form 
of  compassion ;  but  the  former  consoled  himself  with 
spirit.  As  time  wore  on,  and  the  ambition  of  Mad- 
emoiselle was  fain  to  lower  itself,  and  she  became 
conscious  that  her  interested  relations  were  not 
likely  to  aid  in  disinheriting  themselves  by  assist- 
ing her  to  a  marriage  with  any  individual,  she  in 
her  turn  began  to  woo  the  prince.  At  a  court  ball, 
in  the  spring  of  1647,  she  condescended  to  ask  him 
to  lead  out  Mile,  de  Guise  to  dance.  Charles  per- 
haps would  have  obeyed,  or  might  have  been  gallant 
enough  to  have  taken  out  the  Grande  Mademoiselle 
herself,  but  his  royal  mother  interfered,  and  to  pique 
the  lady  to  whom  she  herself  had  stooped  in  order 
to  win  her  dowry  for  the  Prince  of  Wales,  she  re- 
quested him  to  take  the  hand  of  Mile,  de  Guerch^. 
Charles  obeyed,  and  moreover,  of  his  own  movement, 
subsequently  led  out  Mile,  de  Chatillon,  for  whom 
he  manifested  that  night  so  much  regard  that,  what 


450        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

with  the  ardour  of  its  exhibition,  and  the  fact  that 
the  Prince  of  Wales  did  not  ask  Mademoiselle  the 
whole  evening  even  to  dance  the  courantey  the  Mont- 
pensier  overwhelmed  Prince  Rupert  with  the  clamour 
of  her  grievances,  and  swept  from  the  ballroom,  an 
irresistible  beauty  in  an  uncontrollable  passion. 

Mademoiselle  threatened  to  bury  herself  in  a  con- 
vent ;  she  took  to  reading  good  books ;  donned  un- 
couth attire ;  neglected  her  person,  and  then  shook 
this  all  off  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  came  next  year 
from  St.  Germains  to  Fontainebleau,  where  every 
one  found  him  improved  in  manners  and  appearance, 
the  hereditary  hesitation  of  speech  being  less  re- 
markable, as  Madame  de  Chatillon  found,  to  whom 
the  improving  lad  made  love  with  the  perfection 
worthy  of  a  French  abb6. 

But  all  the  various  moods  of  the  Grande  Mademoi- 
selle were  assumed  in  vain,  and  none  of  her  imagi- 
nary lovers  were  ever  attached  to  her  car.  M.  de 
St.  Aulaire,  indeed,  in  his  "  Histoire  de  la  Fronde," 
asserts  that  when  Charles  returned  to  France  after 
the  battle  of  Worcester,  he  wooed  the  Montpensier 
with  the  most  passionate  gallantry,  offering  to  turn 
Romanist  if  she  would  agree  to  become  his  wife. 
The  prince,  at  all  events,  was  lucky  in  not  obtaining 
what  he  is  said  thus  to  have  sought.  Charles  was 
too  well  suited  with  Catherine  of  Braganza.  What 
would  have  been  his  life  with  a  woman  who  loved 
and  fought  with  the  sentimental  energy  of  a  drag- 
oon }  who  repeated  obscene  phrases  uttered  in  her 
hearing  by  courtiers,  with  all  the  wicked  pertness  of 
the  abandoned  Ver-Vert }  who  won  a  triumph  against 
Mazarin  by  turning  the  king's  cannon  on  the  city 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  451 

of  Paris,  and  who  made  epigrams  on  the  victims  in 
the  days  of  the  Fronde  ? 

Meanwhile  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  still  in  his  first 
exile  at  St.  Germains,  where  the  queen,  in  her  little 
court,  was  a  strict  mother  to  the  children  whom  she 
had  about  her  —  to  the  prince,  the  Duke  of  York, 
and  the  little  Henrietta  Maria.  Especially  was  she 
strict  with  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  latter  never 
entered  her  presence,  it  is  said,  with  his  hat  on ; 
but  to  uncover  in  presence  of  a  parent  was  then 
the  universal  and  graceful  custom  of  all  well-bred 
children.  Otherwise,  in  the  condition  of  a  mere 
child  she  maintained  him  ;  made  him  sign  whatever 
document  she  pleased  to  lay  before  him ;  took  to 
herself  the  small  bounty  granted  by  the  French 
court  to  the  English  prince,  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  be  unbecoming  in  the  latter  to  be  reduced 
to  a  pensionary  of  a  foreign  king  —  a  condition  which 
Charles  never  had  the  manliness  to  consider  humili- 
ating; and  finally,  Henrietta,  taking  upon  herself 
what  she  considered  the  satisfaction  of  all  his  re- 
quirements, paid  his  tailors*  bills,  and  never  allowed 
him  to  be  "  master  of  ten  pistoles  to  dispose  of  as  he 
desired." 

If  we  were  to  read  only  the  memoirs  of  Madame 
de  Motteville,  or  those  of  the  "Grande  Mademoi- 
selle," we  might  conclude  that  the  life  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  in  the  French  court  was  one  of  unbroken 
gaiety ;  but  there  were  the  sad  days  as  well  as  the 
gay  nights,  the  time  well  spent  as  well  as  the  seasons 
abused.  There  were  clamourings  with  prayer  for 
money;  and  reconcilings  of  quarrelsome  English 
courtiers.       Even    Hyde   did   not    think   ill   of   the 


452        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

young  prince  for  occasionally  attending  the  French 
Presbyterian  chapel  at  Charenton,  which  had  been 
visited  by  the  orthodox  Episcopalian  Evelyn.  Light 
as  he  was  by  nature,  he  could  be  grave  when  gravity 
was  a  duty,  and  he  "  gave  worthy  Doctor  Earle,  one 
of  his  chaplains,  leave  to  read  to  him  an  hour  in  the 
day;  and  Mr.  Hobbes,  to  teach  him  the  mathemat- 
ics, another."  There  was,  in  short,  a  great  mixture 
of  virtues,  vices,  noble  endurance,  inconsistencies, 
pride,  and  poverty.  When  Evelyn  went  to  St.  Ger- 
mains,  in  1649,  to  kiss  the  hand  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  then  nineteen,  he  rode  in  Lord  Wilmot's 
coach,  and  with  them  Lucy  Barlow,  the  mistress 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  subsequently  *' mother 
to  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  a  brown,  beautiful,  bold, 
but  insipid  creature."  Then  again,  if  the  high  min- 
isters of  King  Charles,  grouped  around  the  Prince 
of  Wales  in  Paris,  were  possessed  of  means  which 
enabled  them  to  make  some  show  and  keep  some 
state,  there  were  English  cavaliers  there,  of  a  knight's 
degree,  too,  who  were  in  straitened  circumstances. 
Evelyn  furnishes  us  with  an  example  when  he  writes  : 
"29th  Dec,  1649.  I  christened  Sir  Hugh  Rilie's 
child  with  Sir  George  Radcliffe,  in  our  chapel,  the 
parents  being  so  poor  that  they  had  provided  no  gos- 
sips, so  as  several  of  us  drawing  lots,  it  fell  on  me, 
the  Dean  of  Peterborough  (Doctor  Cosin)  officiating." 
These  poor  knights  did  not  allow  misfortune  to 
tempt  them  to  crime,  as  the  followers  of  the  brother 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  when  that  brother  was  the 
exiled  king,  James  IL,  residing  in  the  palace  at  St. 
Germains,  which  had  afforded  him  an  asylum  in  his 
boyhood.    These  cavalier  gentlemen  occasionally  took 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  453 

to  the  road,  —  delicious  euphuism  for  "  highway  rob- 
bery ; "  and  some  of  them  were  broken  on  the  wheel 
in  the  square  of  St.  Germains.  The  followers  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  did  not  indeed  rob,  or  cut  other  peo- 
ple's throats,  but  they  gambled,  quarrelled,  and  sav- 
agely fought,  or  were  hardly  kept  from  savagely 
fighting.  The  young  prince  had  difficulty  in  restrain- 
ing a  murderous  fashion,  the  force  or  charm  of  which 
was  acknowledged  by  his  cousin  Rupert,  and  was 
therefore  adopted  as  the  proper  course  to  be  taken 
when  offence  was  given  and  had  to  be  wiped  out. 

From  these  dissensions,  and  from  balls,  hunting, 
love-making,  and  mathematics,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
was  called  away  to  action.  In  1648  a  chance  seemed 
to  present  itself  of  recovering  much  that  had  been 
lost.  The  King  of  England  was  a  captive,  but  there 
was  a  revolted  ex-Parliamentarian  fleet  ready  to  ac- 
knowledge the  prince  for  their  admiral,  at  Helvoet- 
sluys.  Charles,  at  the  end  of  June,  posted  to  Calais, 
sailed  thence  for  Holland,  and  took  command  of  the 
fleet  there,  in  spite  of  the  attempt  to  assert  the  claims 
of  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  as  lord  high  admi- 
ral, and  by  help  of  his  brother-in-law,  the  Prince  of 
Orange. 

A  naval  demonstration  followed,  but  no  fight. 
The  Prince  of  Wales's  squadron  was  about  to  attack 
that  of  Warwick  near  Queensborough,  but  a  storm 
separated  them.  There  was  no  danger,  and  under 
these  pleasant  circumstances  "the  prince  is  said  to 
have  exhibited  great  courage."  On  returning  to  Hol- 
land, Van  Tromp  stood  in  between  him  and  Warwick, 
merely  to  "keep  the  peace."  Miserable  dissensions 
followed  ;  the  prince  went  on  shore,  and  the  command 


454       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF   WALES 

of  the  royal  squadron  was  ultimately  conferred  on 
Prince  Rupert.  The  Duke  of  York  returned  to  St. 
Germains,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  retiring  to  Breda, 
resided  there  in  extreme  poverty,  which  was  only 
rendered  not  intolerable  by  the  charity  and  other  good 
offices  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  When  he  was  in  his 
deepest  poverty,  his  father  was  daily  drawing  nearer 
to  the  great  catastrophe.  Partly  to  gratify  the  filial 
affection  of  the  prince,  Dutch  ambassadors  were  sent, 
but  sent  in  vain,  to  induce  the  Parhament  to  spare 
the  king's  life.  It  was  from  Holland,  too,  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  despatched  a  blank  sheet  of  paper, 
bearing  his  signature  at  the  foot,  thus  signing  by 
anticipation  any  terms  as  regarded  himself,  provided 
the  life  of  his  father  was  not  taken.  This  is  perhaps 
the  noblest  trait  in  the  prince's  career,  and  not  the 
less  noble  because  it  was  fruitless.  When  the  fatal 
news  of  the  king's  death  reached  the  prince,  "the 
barbarous  stroke  so  surprised  him,"  says  Hyde,  "that 
he  was  in  all  the  confusion  imaginable,  and  all  about 
him  were  almost  bereft  of  their  understanding." 

The  prince,  however,  recovered  from  his  surprise 
and  confusion  in  so  very  brief  a  period,  that  Clarendon 
feels  constrained  to  apologise  for  it,  on  the  ground 
that  his  friends  had  earnestly  solicited  him  to  assume 
all  the  courage  demanded  of  him  in  his  new  condition. 
That  new  condition,  of  king,  did  not  raise  him  out  of 
poverty  and  degrading  dependence.  The  Prince  of 
Orange  "  furnished  him  with  black,  and  other  mourn- 
ful emblems  of  his  father's  death,  besides  all  things 
necessary  for  his  support.  Toward  any  other  support 
for  himself  and  his  family  he  had  not  enough  to  main- 
tain them  one  day,  and  there  were  few  among  his 


CHARLES  OF  ST.  JAMES'S  455 

followers  who  could  maintain  themselves  in  the  most 
private  way."  By  "his  family"  is  probably  meant 
Lucy  Barlow,  alias  Walters,  who  in  the  month  of 
April  following  became  the  mother  of  **  John  Croft," 
better  known  afterward  as  "Duke  of  Monmouth." 
A  month  after  the  birth  of  this  unlucky  child, 
Charles  proceeded  to  Paris,  went  thence  on  a  brief 
visit  to  Jersey,  returned  thence  to  Breda  in  March, 
1650,  and  there  met  the  Scottish  commissioners, 
who  invited  him  to  repair  to  their  native  country 
to  be  crowned  king.  Accordingly,  in  the  July  fol- 
lowing he  sailed  up  the  Frith  of  Cromarty,  and 
signed  the  Covenant  on  shipboard  as  the  purchase 
of  a  permission  to  land  on  Scottish  territory.  He 
remained,  as  a  sort  of  prisoner  at  large,  till  the  New 
Year's  Day  of  165 1,  when  he  was  crowned  at  Scone 
with  some  magnificence,  and  afterward  lectured  in  a 
dreary,  bitter,  insulting  sermon,  which,  to  judge  by 
the  printed  copy  published  at  Aberdeen,  must  have 
occupied  two  weary  hours  of  that  eventful  day,  and 
with  which  he  was  lustily  cautioned,  menaced,  coun- 
selled, and  pummelled,  until  he  must  have  felt  in- 
clined to  pull  the  reverend  Mr.  Douglas  from  the 
pulpit. 

As  even  the  English  Independents  acknowledged 
as  "King  of  Scotland"  the  prince  crowned  by  the 
Scottish  Presbyterians,  I  here  take  leave  of  Charles 
of  St.  James's.  Nine  years  elapsed  before  he  entered 
as  a  monarch  the  palace  in  which  he  was  born.  To 
bring  him  there  earlier,  Dunbar  was  fought  for  him 
in  vain,  and  he  himself  with  fruitless  gallantry  main- 
tained the  four  hours'  fight  at  Worcester.  His  after- 
story  has  been  narrated  in  the  king's  own  words,  and 


456       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

does  not  belong  to  my  subject.  I  will  therefore  con- 
clude this  sketch  by  stating  that,  in  October,  165 1, 
the  fugitive  monarch  succeeded  in  escaping  from  his 
pursuers  into  France,  whence  the  force  of  political 
circumstances  compelled  him  to  withdraw  to  Spa,  and 
subsequently  to  Cologne.  In  various  cities  of  Flan- 
ders and  Holland  he  led  a  life  of  poverty  and  pleasure, 
and  appears  to  have  borne  the  former  with  a  gay  sort 
of  philosophy,  till  the  year  1660,  when  he  was  re- 
stored to  his  father's  throne.  That  father  left  for  the 
instruction  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  a  document  of  con- 
siderable length,  the  purport  of  which  was  to  enable 
him,  should  he  ever  gain  the  crown,  to  wear  it  with 
dignity,  and  to  be  remembered  rather  as  Charles  the 
Good  than  Charles  the  Great.  To  effect  this,  he 
enjoins  his  son  to  learn  wisdom  from  his  trials,  to 
be  faithful  to  the  Church  of  England,  never  to  strain 
the  law,  to  use  and  not  abuse  the  prerogative,  to 
manifest  himself  by  his  virtues,  to  respect  truth,  and 
never  leave  a  promise  unperformed ;  and  the  living 
son  profited  only  as  sons  of  his  quality  do,  by  his 
dead  father's  counsel. 


Book  V. 

Princes  of  Wales  of  the 
House  of  Hanover 


CHAPTER   XV. 

PRINCES    OF    WALES    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    HANOVER 
George  Augustus  of  Hanover.     Born  1683.     Died  (king)  1760 

From  the  year  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I. 
(1649)  to  t^^t  o^  t^^  creation  of  George  Augustus  of 
Hanover  as  Prince  of  Wales  (17 14),  that  title  was 
unknown  in  England,  —  and  yet  it  was  borne  by  an 
heir  to  the  crown,  born  in  this  country,  and  by  that 
heir's  son,  bom  in  Rome,  who  found  no  lack  of  fol- 
lowers to  acknowledge  its  legality.  I  allude  to  the  son 
and  grandson  of  James  H. ;  and  although  their  right 
to  assume  such  title  was  not  recognised  by  the  law, 
some  notice  of  the  two  unfortunate  princes  of  the 
house  of  Stuart,  who,  successively,  called  themselves, 
and  were  called,  by  it,  may  be  connected  with  the 
more  lengthened  details  referring  to  their  more 
fortunate  cousins  of  the  house  of  Hanover. 

Four  sons  of  James  H.  (when  Duke  of  York),  by 
his  first  wife,  Anne  Hyde  —  three  of  which  sons  had 
borne  the  title  of  Duke  of  Cambridge,  and  one, 
Duke  of  Kendal,  died  early.  One  son  by  his  second 
wife,  Mary  of  Modena,  Charles,  Duke  of  Cambridge, 
was  born,  and  died  in  the  year  1677.  Eleven  years 
later,  in  1688,  when  his  parents  were  on  the  throne, 
was  born  the  Prince  James  Francis  Edward.  "  Peo- 
ple were  not  a  little  surprised,"  says  Sandford,  "to 

459 


46o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

hear  the  queen  was  brought  to  bed  of  a  prince ;  how- 
ever, this  account  was  pubHshed  by  authority  :  White- 
hall, June  loth.  This  day,  between  nine  and  ten  in 
the  morning,  the  queen  was  safely  delivered  of  a 
prince,  at  St.  James's ;  his  Majesty,  the  queen  dow- 
ager, most  of  the  lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  and 
divers  ladies  of  quality  being  present."  On  the  15th 
of  the  following  October,  the  prince  received  private 
baptism,  on  which  occasion  he  may  be  said  to  have 
been  "gazetted"  Prince  of  Wales;  the  notice,  by 
authority,  running  thus:  ♦*  Whitehall,  Oct.  15  th. 
This  day,  in  the  chapel  of  St.  James's,  his  Royal 
Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  being  before  chris- 
tened and  solemnly  named  (amidst  the  ceremonies 
and  rites  of  baptism)  James  Francis  Edward ;  his 
Holiness,  represented  by  his  nuncio,  godfather,  and 
the  queen  dowager,  godmother.  The  king  and  queen 
assisted  at  the  solemnity,  with  a  great  attendance  of 
nobility  and  gentry,  and  concourse  of  people,  all 
expressing  their  joy  and  satisfaction,  which  was 
suitable  to  the  place  and  occasion."  In  this  way, 
amid  a  rejoicing  concourse  of  people,  was  privately 
baptised  the  first  English  Catholic  Prince  of  Wales 
that  the  country  had  seen  since  the  creation  of 
Henry,  afterward  eighth  king  of  that  name. 

The  birth  of  this  Prince  of  Wales  removed  William 
and  Mary  from  their  presumptive  heirship  to  the 
throne,  in  some  wise  as  that  of  Edward  of  Westmin- 
ster deprived  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  of  his  expected 
inheritance.  But  the  Stuart  prince  soon  ceased  to  be 
an  impediment  in  the  way  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
At  six  months  old  he  was,  in  his  mother's  arms,  a 
fugitive.     With   his   family,    James   Francis  resided 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  461 

at  St.  Germains,  under  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wales 
(late  Prince  of  Wales  he  was  commonly  entitled,  in 
the  English  papers),  till  1701,  the  year  in  which  his 
father  died.  The  year  previously  he  had  been  pub- 
licly confirmed,  or  "taken  his  first  communion.'* 
The  Earl  of  Manchester,  English  ambassador  in 
France,  writing  to  Lord  Jersey,  informs  the  latter 
that  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  received  the  so-called 
Prince  of  Wales  at  the  gates  of  Notre  Dame,  with 
the  honours  ordinarily  accorded  to  a  king.  The  rite 
impressed  the  young  communicant,  for  he  subse- 
quently declared  to  his  delighted  mother,  that  he 
would  now  rather  die  than  offend  God  mortally. 
Poor  boy !  like  wiser  persons,  he  forgot  his  own 
resolution,  as  he  did  the  counsel  of  his  dying  father, 
who,  following  the  course  of  many  dying  men,  gave 
excellent  advice  which  had  never  formed  the  rule  of 
his  own  conduct. 

During  the  period  he  was  acknowledged  in  France 
as  Prince  of  Wales,  he  won  the  hearts  of  not  a  few, 
who  willingly  indeed  paid  tribute  of  their  love,  where 
they  never  intended  to  offer  tribute  of  loyalty.  He 
grew  up,  —  witty,  lively,  bold,  and  graceful ;  and 
made  the  poorer  Jacobites  ecstatic,  by  sharing  among 
them  his  own  small  revenue  in  pocket-money.  At 
the  age  of  thirteen,  he  was  tall  for  his  age,  of  a  slen- 
der figure,  —  and  looking  so  attractive  in  his  little 
bright  cuirass  and  his  rich  point-lace  cravat,  that 
Innocent  XII.  pronounced  him,  what  no  fine-art 
critic  would  ever  have  thought  of  calling  him,  in" 
such  attire,  —  "  truly  an  angel !  " 

In  1 719,  the  titular  king  espoused  Clementine, 
granddaughter   of   the  heroic  Polish  monarch,  John 


462        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Sobieski.  It  was  an  unhappy  marriage;  and  the 
vices  of  the  husband  drove  the  wife  to  seek  refuge  in 
a  convent,  within  six  years  of  their  union.  A  formal 
reconciUation  was  effected,  and  Clementine  for  forty 
years  lived  under  the  roof  of  the  titular  king,  —  as 
St.  Bridget  did  with  Prince  Ulpho;  and  then  died. 
Her  consort  followed  her  to  the  tomb  the  following 
year,  1766. 

At  that  date,  George  III.,  proud,  as  he  said,  of 
being  bom  a  Briton,  was  firmly  seated  on  the  throne 
of  England.  In  his  person  the  country  had  seen  the 
third  Prince  of  Wales  of  the  House  of  Brunswick; 
but  at  the  period  of  his  accession,  both  the  sons  of 
James  Francis  were  alive,  the  elder  of  whom,  Charles 
Edward,  had  borne  for  some  time,  on  the  Continent, 
the  title  which  distinguishes  the  first  heir  of  England. 
Charles  Edward  was  born  at  Rome,  in  the  year  1 720, 
at  which  time  George  I.  was  King  of  Great  Britain ; 
and  his  son,  George  Augustus,  first  Prince  of  Wales 
of  the  Hanover  or  Brunswick  line,  was  in  the  thirty- 
seventh  year  of  his  age,  and  the  sixth  since  his  crea- 
tion as  ruler  of  the  principaUty. 

There  was  still  a  strong  antagonism  between  the 
two  branches  of  our  ancient  house.  Five  years  only 
had  elapsed  since  the  affair  of  '15,  and  a  quarter  of 
a  century  later  the  male  line  made  a  bold  and  almost 
successful  stroke  to  unseat  the  descendant  of  James 
I.,  through  his  daughter,  Elizabeth  of  Bohemia. 
Hitherto  the  chiefs  of  the  houses  of  Stuart  and 
Brunswick  observed  dignity  in  their  position  of  an- 
tagonists. Their  respective  partisans,  however,  had 
neither  the  temper  nor  good  sense  to  follow  so  excel- 
lent an  example.     Seldom  has  there  been  so  reckless 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  463 

a  disregard  for  truth  as  that  exhibited  on  this  occa- 
sion by  the  party-writers,  — paid  party-writers,  chiefly, 
on  behalf  of  the  family  reigning  or  of  the  family  that 
had  ceased  to  reign.  He  who  reads  the  effusions  of 
authors  of  one  faction  only  will  find  ground  enough 
therein  to  curse  the  opposing  faction.  Men  high  in 
authority  or  power  furthered  this  employment  of 
"Captain  Pen,"  and  neither  side  is  free  from  the 
reproach  of  having  calumniated  the  other.  This 
ignoble  course  commenced  early.  The  fable  of  the 
warming-pan  was  devised  to  prove  that  the  Stuart 
Prince  of  Wales  was  an  impostor.  For  virulent  slan- 
der against  the  father  of  that  prince,  it  is  now  known 
that  Titus  Gates,  —  at  a  time,  too,  when  his  rascality 
had  brought  upon  him  the  confiscation  of  his  civil 
rights,  —  was  receiving  the  liberal  wages  of  ;£io  per 
week.  During  ten  years,  Walpole  expended  more 
money  in  rewarding  the  newspaper  and  pamphlet 
writers  adverse  to  the  Stuarts,  than  was  expended  by 
Louis  XIV.  in  annual  pensions  to  learned  men  in 
various  European  countries.  Best  paid  of  all  these 
slanderers  was  Amall,  whose  glory  was  in  writing 
for  hire,  and  whose  venal  pen  gained  for  its  unscru- 
pulous wielder,  in  four  years,  little  less  than  £1 1,000. 
Warburton  has  pilloried  this  fellow  in  his  "  Notes  to 
the  Dunciad ;  '*  and  he  adds,  that  the  hireling,  in  his 
unclean  fury,  sometimes  so  exceeded  the  terms  of 
his  commission,  that  his  very  employers  blushed  at 
his  scurrilities. 

At  a  later  period  it  was  the  practice  of  writers  in 
what  they  chose  to  call  the  Hanoverian  interest 
to  "write  down"  the  courage  of  the  Stuart  Prince 
of  Wales.     It  was  the  great  fault,  at  once,  indeed. 


464       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

a  blunder  and  a  crime  in  that  unhappy  prince,  that 
he  bore  arms  against  his  country,  and  had  the 
blood  of  EngHshmen  on  his  conscience.  Bearing 
arms,  however,  he  bore  them  like  a  gallant  soldier. 
Equal  terms  of  praise  may  be  awarded  to  his  son, 
who  fought  as  bravely  and  as  foolishly  as  he ;  and 
not  less  to  their  cousins  of  Brunswick,  who  fought 
like  the  sons  of  a  line  that,  man  or  woman,  had 
never  known  fear.  The  princes  of  both  houses  went 
under  fire  at  as  early  an  age  as  that  in  which  the 
Black  Prince  saw  his  first  field.  On  some  occasions, 
they  met  as  foes  in  the  same  contest.  At  Ouden- 
arde,  in  1708,  the  Stuart  Prince  of  Wales,  James 
Francis,  was  ranged  against  Prince  George  (after- 
ward George  II.),  whom  Queen  Anne  had  created, 
two  years  previously,  Duke  of  Cambridge.  In  1709, 
at  Malplaquet,  James  Francis  had  well-nigh  recov- 
ered the  lost  fortunes  of  the  day  by  his  vigorous 
charge  against  the  brave  German  cavalry,  whom  he 
completely  routed ;  but  the  English  troops  were 
there,  and  against  their  "antique  valour"  and  the 
skill  of  their  glorious  commander,  no  courage  nor 
ability  could  prevail ;  and  the  Stuart  rode  from  the 
field,  honoured  but  not  triumphant. 

When  George  I.  landed  at  Greenwich,  on  the  17th 
of  September,  17 14,  he  was  accompanied  by  his  only 
son,  George  Augustus,  then  in  his  thirty-first  year. 
Ten  days  later,  this  son  was  created  Prince  of  Wales. 
He  had  been  already  married  nine  years,  to  Caroline 
of  Anspach,  and  he  was  the  first  Prince  of  Wales, 
since  Edward  the  Black  Prince,  who  had  children  of 
his  own  in  the  lifetime  of  his  father. 

George  Augustus  was  bom  at  Hanover,  on  the 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  465 

30th  of  October,  1683.  His  mother  was  Sophia 
Dorothea  of  Zell  —  a  woman  of  much  beauty,  but 
small  discretion,  who  was  hated  by  her  husband  and 
loved  by  her  son.  The  hatred  of  her  husband  has 
been  attempted  to  be  justified  by  the  recent  publi- 
cation of  her  alleged  correspondence  with  Count 
Konigsmark,  which  are  supposed  to  be  conclusive 
of  her  lack  of  loyalty  as  a  wife.'  We  have  her  own 
repeated  assertion,  made  when  taking  the  sacrament, 
and  finally  reiterated  on  her  death-bed,  that  her  fidel- 
ity to  her  husband  had  never  been  violated.  Against 
this  assertion  we  have  the  correspondence  in  ques- 
tion, with  no  shade  of  satisfactory  proof  that  the 
letters  are  genuine.  "In  no  age,"  says  a  writer  in 
the  Athenceumy  No.  1522,  "has  literature  been 
free  from  the  intrusion  of  spurious  records  into  the 
domain  of  truth.  One  man  forges  in  pure  love  of 
sport  —  throws  his  forged  papers  into  a  collection, 
to  be  found  a  hundred  years  later,  merely  to  perplex 
the  pundits.  Another  forges  to  sustain  a  crotchet 
or  a  principle.  But  the  most  industrious  and  the 
most  facile  are  those  who  forge  for  profit.  Every 
one  familiar  with  old  papers  is  aware  that  the  publi- 
cation of  historical  documents  —  letters,  plays,  poems, 
maps,  charts,  and  cylinders  —  has  now  ceased  to  be 
a  learned  profession,  and  has  become  a  manufacture. 
As  the  Old  Bailey  had  its  tribes  of  rascals  ready  to 
witness  against  anybody  and  anything  for  money, 
so  literature  has  its  race  of  outcasts  ready  to  furnish 
any  document  that  may  be  wanted,  from  a  Wardour 
Street  pedigree,  derived  from  scrolls  in  a  Cheshire 
muniment-room,  up  to  a  copy  of  Homer  from  a  mon- 

-  **  Blatter  fur  litterarische  Unterhaltung,"  etc. 


466        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

astery,  at  the  summit  of  Mount  Athos."  With  this 
passage  in  view,  and  the  conviction  that  it  was  im- 
portant for  those  who  murdered  Konigsmark,  and 
destroyed  the  reputation  of  Sophia  Dorothea,  to 
blast  the  character  of  that  princess  for  ever,  we  may 
find  fair  warrant  in  disregarding  the  correspondence 
to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  to  accept  the  love  of 
the  son  as  a  better  testimony  to  his  mother's  inno- 
cence, than  the  hatred  of  a  faithless  husband  as  evi- 
dence of  the  guilt  of  his  wife. 

At  the  electoral  court  of  his  father,  George 
Louis,  George  Augustus  was  brought  up  under  the 
superintendence  of  his  grandmother,  the  "old  Elec- 
tress  "  Sophia.  That  remarkably  clever  lady  gained 
no  credit  by  her  pupil,  nor  is  there  any  appearance 
of  her  having  desired  to  do  so,  although  she  loved 
her  grandson  better  than  she  ever  did  her  son. 
Educated  under  the  influences  of  superabundant  pre- 
cept and  most  unsavoury  example,  the  electoral 
prince  became  unruly  of  temper,  of  contracted  intel- 
ligence, and  of  an  ever-recurring  indiscretion. 

Till  the  Act  of  Succession  little  interest  was  felt  in 
this  country  touching  the  young  prince ;  but  when 
that  act  placed  him  near  the  English  throne,  reports 
of  English  travellers  sojourning  in  Germany  used  to 
reach  these  shores ;  and  such  as  referred  to  George 
Augustus  were  received  with  curiosity,  if  not  satis- 
faction. Nothing  could  well  be  more  contradictory 
than  these  reports,  for  while  some  were  in  praise  of 
the  prince,  others  were  couched  in  terms  of  violent 
censure;  and  a  Jacobite  pamphlet,  addressed  "To 
the  Thing  called  Prince  of  Wales,"  repeats  a  current 
assertion  of  the  day,  that  till  the  passing  of  the  act 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  467 

above  noticed,  George  Augustus  was  brought  up  in 
a  farmhouse ;  ^.nd  the  book  intimates  that  the  habit- 
ual rudeness  of  that  personage  was  owing  solely  to 
this  early  training,  or  the  want  of  it.  If  one  could 
credit  this  assertion,  it  would  be  more  reasonable  to 
refer  the  superstitious  quality  of  the  young  prince's 
mind  to  the  teaching  of  his  rustic  tutors,  than  to 
the  influence  of  the  Electress  Sophia,  who  was  a 
woman  distinguished  in  most  things  for  her  strong 
common  sense. 

The  Jacobite  pamphlet  further  reports  that  (for 
some  cause  not  named)  the  prince's  "  French  school- 
master, and  others,  had  been  whipped  to  death"  —  a 
fair  specimen  of  the  exaggerations  of  the  lower  mem- 
bers of  the  Tory  faction  of  that  day. 

But  that  faction  could  not  deny  the  young  fellow's 
bravery.  Compared  with  that  of  his  Stuart  cousin 
at  Oudenarde,  it  suffered  nothing  in  its  lustre ;  and, 
saving  a  little  too  great  exclusiveness  of  spirit,  the 
birthday  versifier  was  justified,  who  sang  of  the  fair- 
haired  and  stout-hearted  young  soldier : 

"  Let  Oudenarde's  field  your  courage  tell ! 
Who  look'd  so  martial,  or  who  fought  so  well? 
Who  charg'd  the  foe  with  greater  fire  or  force  ? 
Who  felt  unmovM,  the  trembling,  falling  horse  ? 
Sound,  sound,  O  Fame,  the  trumpet  loud  and  true, 
All,  all,  this  blaze  to  my  Prince  George  is  due. 
In  early  life  such  deeds  in  arms  were  done. 
As  prove  you  able  to  defend  the  throne." 

"  He  is  hot-headed,"  said  his  father  of  him ;  "  but, 
nevertheless,  he  is  not  without  heart."  This  is  the 
most  affectionate  speech  on  record,  of  that  sire  of 


468        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

whom  St.  Simon  has  remarked,  that  he  always  hated 
his  son  because  of  the  bad  opinion  he  entertained  or 
affected  to  entertain  of  that  son's  mother,  Sophia 
Dorothea. 

The  imprisonment  of  that  princess  commenced 
when  George  Augustus  was  ten  years  of  age.  He 
was,  therefore,  sufficiently  old  at  that  period  to  re- 
member with  an  affection  that  never  seems  to  have 
diminished  her  early  good  offices  toward  him.  This 
filial  memory  will  account  for  and  justify  the  attempt 
he  made,  when  yet, a  youth,  to  escape  from  a  hunting 
party  and  obtain  entrance  into  the  castle  of  Ahlden, 
where  his  mother  was  detained.  He  was  pursued, 
overtaken,  and  brought  back,  a  sort  of  prisoner,  one 
at  least  condemned  never  to  behold  again  the  mother 
to  look  on  whom  he  had  made  such  bold,  though 
fruitless,  essay. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-two,  he  married  Caroline 
Wilhelmina  Dorothea  of  Anspach,  who  was  of  the 
same  age  as  the  prince.  This  lady  had  refused  the 
Archduke  Charles,  with  a  crown  in  view,  rather  than 
change  her  religion  for  his  sake.  The  spirited  Prot- 
estant princess  did  not  immediately  accept  Prince 
George ;  and,  as  the  definite  acceptance  happened  not 
to  take  place  till  after  the  decease  of  her  brother,  the 
Jacobite  writers  gave  a  reason  for  her  delay,  at  the 
very  memory  of  which  the  heart  itself  turns  sick. 

In  the  ensuing  year.  Queen  Anne  created  him  an 
English  peer,  under  various  titles,  culminating  in 
that  of  Duke  of  Cambridge ;  but  when  Baron  Schutz, 
the  Hanoverian  minister,  applied  to  the  lord  chancel- 
lor for  the  duke's  writ  of  summons  to  the  British 
Parliament,  the  queen  affected  to  believe  that  the 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  469 

baron  had  acted  without  authority,  and  she  wrote  to 
the  duke  that  his  presence  here  would  interfere  with 
her  comfort  and  his  interests ;  and  so  he  was  fain  to 
remain  at  Hanover  till  the  arrival  here  of  his  father, 
as  king.  This  disappointment  was  compensated  for 
by  the  queen  consenting  to  be  godmother  to  the 
prince's  eldest  daughter,  that  sharp-witted  little 
Anne  (born  1709),  who  was  so  vain  and  so  ambitious, 
who  admired  male  beauty,  and  yet  married  the 
ugliest  man  of  her  day,  —  the  Prince  of  Orange,  — 
and  who  ultimately  disliked  her  own  father  because 
he  would  not  be  ruled  by  her  as  he  had  been  by  his 
wife. 

Previous  to  the  arrival  of  the  Hanoverian  family 
in  England,  there  were  bom  of  the  marriage  of 
George  Augustus  and  Caroline,  four  children,  namely, 
Frederick  Louis,  born  in  1707  (subsequently  Prince 
of  Wales) ;  Anne,  born  two  years  later ;  Amelia,  born 
in  171 1 ;  and  Caroline,  born  in  the  following  year. 
The  three  daughters  accompanied  their  mother  to  this 
country,  which  was  not  even  visited  by  Prince  Fred- 
erick until  after  his  father's  accession  to  the  throne. 

The  new  Princess  of  Wales  did  not  reach  London 
with  her  young  charge  until  after  the  creation  of  her 
husband  as  "Prince  of  Wales."  The  first  appear- 
ance of  the  party  in  public,  after  the  coronation,  in 
October,  was  at  a  corporation  festivity  at  Guildhall. 
At  this  serio-comic  affair,  the  princess  declined  to 
kiss  the  lady  mayoress  —  Queen  Anne  having 
broken  through  that  civic  formality,  —  whereupon 
the  chief  lady  in  the  city  bawled  loudly  for  her  train- 
bearers,  to  show  that  she  was  as  great  a  person  on 
her  own  ground  as  any  princess  of  them   all ;  and 


47  o        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

she  cried  to  her  page,  "  Boy,  bring  me  my  bucket " 
(Bow-bell  euphuism  for  bouquet),  and  altogether 
behaved  so  strangely,  that  some  court  wag  told  the 
chief  members  of  the  royal  family  present  that  the 
lord  mayor  (Humphreys)  had  only  hired  her  for 
the  occasion. 

Ten  days  later  was  the  anniversary  of  the  birthday 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  On  turning  over  the  news- 
papers of  the  day,  I  find  none  so  satisfied  with  that 
anniversary,  and  with  the  prince  and  his  family, 
as  the  Patriot,  From  columns  of  sugared  laudation 
I  cite  a  few  passages,  as  they  reflect  something  of 
the  persons  as  well  as  of  the  opinions  of  the 
immediate  period,  and,  I  may  add,  the  occasional 
quaintness  of  style  then  prevalent,  however  little 
approved  of. 

"This,"  says  the  Patriot  of  October  30,  1714, 
"  this  is  the  anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  his  Royal 
Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  by  being  so,  in  a 
more  particular  manner  is  made  valuable  to  us,  who 
daily  reap  the  advantage  of  his  virtue  and  valour." 
The  valour  at  Oudenarde  was  thus  remembered ;  the 
virtue  was  attributed  to  the  chief  of  the  house,  of 
whom  it  is  drolly  said  :  "  All  the  virtues  of  the  king 
are  so  happily  infused  into  his  successor,  and  through- 
out his  whole  illustrious  family,  that  he  will  ever  live 
to  make  us  happy,  though  (if  I  may  so  express  it), 
he  may  sometimes  change  his  dress."  Could  Mad- 
elon  or  Cathos  have  invented  a  prettier  euphuism 
than  this,  for  death  and  metempsychosis  ?  But, 
turning  to  the  sire  and  son,  the  Patriot  remarks : 
"To  have  an  heir  to  a  crown,  young,  brave,  and 
active,  in  all  monarchies  has  been  esteemed  the  next 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  471 

blessing  to  the  sovereign's  being  just,  wise,  and 
valiant ;  but  to  have  a  prince  upon  the  throne,  val- 
iant, courteous,  compassionate,  politic,  and  religious ; 
to  have  his  successor  possess  all  the  charms  and 
gaiety  of  youth,  furnished  with  all  that  knowledge 
and  those  accomplishments  which  are  necessary  for  a 
gentleman,  a  prince,  and  a  Christian,  —  these  are  dis- 
tinguished blessings  here  only  to  be  found."  And 
then  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  alone,  we  find  it  said : 

"  To  have  the  successor  stand  in  the  near  relation 
of  a  son,  a  husband,  and  a  father,  and  to  fill  each 
station  with  that  duty,  that  tenderness,  and  affection 
which  they  severally  require,  is  a  happiness  to  be 
found  in  no  other  nation  in  the  world  but  our  own." 

So  much  for  the  prince  ;  of  the  princess  we  find  a 
character  in  prose,  which  Addison  did  not  write,  but 
which  he  copied  closely  in  his  panegyric  in  verse : 

"  In  other  reigns,  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian 
have  been  esteemed  inconsistent  appellations,  but  in 
this  all  approved  gallantry  and  fashion  will  take  its 
rise  from  the  religion  we  profess.  The  exemplary 
propriety  of  her  Royal  Highness  the  princess  has 
already  broken  in  upon  a  custom  which  is  no  way 
agreeable  to  the  purity  of  our  religion.  To  be  a 
tender  wife  and  a  fond  mother  will  now  be  no  longer 
a  fashionable  jest,  but  piety  and  affection  esteemed 
as  additional  ornaments  to  beauty  and  wit.  In  short, 
virtue  and  innocence  now  surround  the  British 
throne." 

This  last  jubilate  brings  the  writer  to  speak  of  the 
children  of  this  marriage,  and  especially  of  the  future 
Prince  of  Wales,  who,  however,  hardly  did  justice  to 
the  generous  praise  of  the  Patriot. 


472        THE   BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

"I  have  mentioned  Innocence,  which,  methinks, 
sets  before  me  those  surprising  infants  which  are  the 
reward  of  their  parents'  virtue.  The  young  prince  is 
not  yet,  indeed,  arrived  in  these  happy  kingdoms,  but 
the  greatness  of  his  parts,  at  an  age  in  which  those 
of  other  children  are  scarce  discernible,  the  majesty 
of  his  appearance,  and  the  gracefulness  of  his  deport- 
ment, have  already  gained  him  here  a  reputation,  not 
as  a  child,  but  as  a  finished  man." 

And,  finally,  of  the  royal  young  ladies,  we  are  told 
that  "his  sisters,  the  young  princesses,  who  are 
daily  the  admiration  of  the  British  court,  in  every  enter- 
taining answer  which  they  make,  and  question  which 
they  ask,  discover  a  capacity  as  much  superior  to 
that  of  other  children  as  is  their  condition."  So 
wrote  an  independent  Briton  of  an  heir  apparent, 
whose  father  and  mother  never  loved  and  always 
reviled  him ;  of  a  father  whose  own  sire  was  wont 
to  fling  at  him  a  whole  vocabulary  of  filthy  terms, 
and  a  mother  for  whom  "  she-devil "  was  the  mildest 
term  vouchsafed  in  his  anger  by  her  father-in-law. 

Indeed,  in  justice  to  the  Jacobite  writers,  it  must 
be  said  that  in  the  epithets  which  they  applied  to  the 
prince,  and  princess  in  particular,  they  only  a  little 
exceeded  in  bitterness  those  nearest  akin  to  that 
illustrious  pair.  The  Jacobite  pamphlets  show  the 
hopelessness  and  the  worthlessness  of  their  authors 
in  their  want  of  temper  and  the  unseemliness  of  their 
epithets.  The  prince  is  told,  in  one,  that  as  to  his 
being  a  man,  he  is  only  "  Quelque  chose,''  resembling 
one.  He  is  told  that  "  the  land  is  cursed  with  him 
and  his,"  and  that  the  east  wind  will.be  more  than 
ever  execrable  in  England,  since,  by  its  favour,  he 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  473 

and  his  family  arrived  on  these  shores.  All  pubHc 
calamities  were  laid  to  the  charge  of  him  and  his 
family.  Fires,  storms,  bankruptcies,  diseases,  and 
sudden  deaths,  seem  to  have  come  in  only  with 
Hanover  and  Hanover  rats.  I  should  disgrace  my- 
self and  disgust  my  readers  if  I  were  to  repeat  the 
least  offensive  of  the  suggestions  whispered  to  the 
prince  touching  the  Princess  of  Wales  —  they  are 
filthy  beyond  the  most  crapulous  imagination.  The 
writers,  indeed,  spare  neither  father  nor  wife ;  and 
the  writer  of  a  pamphlet  addressed  to  the  "Thing 
they  call  the  Prince  of  Wales,"  while  attributing  to 
the  presence  of  the  Hanoverian  family  the  murrain 
which  had  been  destroying  the  horned  cattle,  expresses 
his  wonder  how,  when  such  beasts  were  perishing, 
his  father,  "the  elector,"  had  been  so  lucky  as  to 
escape.  How  the  authors  and  printers  of  such  in- 
famous books  escaped,  we  may  well  wonder.  That 
the  authors  were  not  necessarily  low  or  illiterate  men 
may  be  conceived  from  what  learned  and  virulent  old 
Hearne  himself  has  left  on  record,  touching  the 
alleged  drinking  propensities  of  Caroline,  and  their 
exceedingly  nasty  consequences. 

In  contrast  with  these  men,  if  the  anonymous 
Jacobite  writers  were  men,  stands  fair,  prattling,  self- 
satisfied,  brave-hearted  Susan  Centlivre.  In  May, 
1 7 14,  she  had  boldly  dedicated  one  of  her  plays 
to  George  Augustus,  then  Duke  of  Cambridge,  and 
as  the  period  was  one  in  which,  as  the  Whig  Pa- 
triot remarks,  it  was  esteemed  almost  a  crime  to 
mane  the  electoral  family,  the  dramatist  lady  was  in 
171 5  extolled  as  "a  mistress  of  a  true  British  princi- 
ple."    So  this  gentle  yet  vivacious  Susanna  was  the 


474       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

first  to  wish  the  Princess  of  Wales  a  "happy  new 
year,"  on  the  ist  of  January,  1715,  in  some  highly 
flown  stanzas  which  represented  Caroline  at  her 
toilet  and  admitted  the  universe  to  a  contemplation 
of  her  charms.  Susanna  then  told  our  ancestors  that 
if  Apelles  could  have  seen  the  princess  at  the  toilet 
in  question,  he  would  have  taken  her  as  a  model  for 
Venus,  rather  than  the  goddess  herself;  in  which 
case,  says  the  powdered  Sappho  to  the  wife  of  George 
Augustus,  — 

**  Your  charming  figure  had  enhanced  his  fame ; 
And  shrines  been  raised  to  Carolina's  name." 

The  poetess,  however,  reflects  that  no  artist  could 
fix  as  his  own  the  grace  which  bloomed  in  her,  and  is 
then  disposed  to  envy  the  glass  which,  if  gazed  upon 
by  the  royal  beauty  —  cold  glass,  she  thinks,  if  not 
fired  to  something  exceedingly  impertinent  by  the 
light  and  warmth  of  such  eyes !  Of  those  eyes 
Susanna  becomes  enamoured,  as  Cretan  ladies  were 
wont  to  be  of  one  another.  In  them  she  beholds 
Love's  conquering  arrows ;  on  her  locks,  Susanna 
distinguishes,  carelessly  hanging,  Dan  Cupid's  darts, 
"a  sharpened  dart  at  every  hair,"  and,  seeing  in 
Caroline  the  sum  of  all  singular  and  several  beauties 
which  distinguish  some  few  poor  mortal  women,  pro- 
nounces her  divine,  and  gifted  with  an  immortality  of 
youth.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  such  exaggerated 
homage  could  ever  have  been  offered  or  received  ; 
assuredly,  the  Sappho  will  have  small  chance  of  being 
awarded  a  gilded  laurel  leaf,  who  may  venture  to 
compare  our  next  Princess  of  Wales  against  all 
womankind,  after  this  fashion  of  Mrs.  Centlivre : 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  475 

"  Beauty  from  Fancy  takes  its  various  arms, 

And  ev'ry  woman  some  one  breast  may  move ; 

Some  in  a  shape,  a  lip,  a  look,  find  charms. 
To  justify  their  choice  and  boast  their  love. 

Here  in  one  form  Nature's  whole  forces  join, 
And  fix  the  standard  of  her  sacred  coin." 

The  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  had  come  to  this 
country  with  very  different  feelings.  The  former 
could  with  difficulty  control  his  joy,  or  conceal  his 
pride,  or  repress  expression  of  his  first  honest  im- 
pulse to  fulfil  every  duty  in  the  higher  and  more 
responsible  station  to  which  he  had  been  raised 
by  the  accession  of  his  father.  It  was  otherwise  with 
the  princess,  if  we  may  believe  Baron  Pilnitz.  She 
was  coldly  indifferent  to  the  new  honours  awaiting 
her  ;  and,  considering  her  husband  as  good  as  any 
king  before  he  came  heir  to  one,  thought  nothing  the 
better  of  him  or  of  herself  as  they  stood  next  to 
a  throne.  Such  may  have  been  the  real  sentiments 
of  Caroline,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  there 
never  lived  a  woman  so  well  able  to  conceal  her  true 
feelings  as  that  accomplished  and,  in  many  respects, 
admirable  princess. 

George  Augustus  remained  Prince  of  Wales  from 
the  year  17 14  to  that  of  his  father's  demise  in  1727. 
Those  thirteen  years  were  years  of  ignoble  family 
dissension,  and  not  of  pure  example  either  in  father 
or  son,  whose  differences  were  aggravated  by  the 
selfish  interests  of  politicians,  and  by  the  want  of 
self-respect  (and  of  mutual  respect)  in  the  unnatural 
adversaries.  Long  before  the  heir  was  driven  from 
the  royal  palace  by  the  king,  people  spoke  and  wrote 
of  the  "two  courts,"  and  of  their  widening  disagree- 


476        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

ment.  The  first  public  display  of  this  feeling  was 
exhibited  at  the  christening  of  the  prince's  first  son 
born  in  England.  This  was  George  William,  in  be- 
half of  whom  the  prince  had  asked  the  king  and  his 
brother,  the  Prince-Bishop  of  Osnaburgh,  to  stand  as 
sponsors.  The  king  had  acquiesced,  but  he  appeared 
at  the  bedside  of  Caroline  on  the  day  of  the  chris- 
tening with  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who  was  exe- 
crated by  the  prince,  as  his  cosponsor.  The  Prince 
of  Wales  nursed  his  wrath  till  the  officiating  prelate 
had  concluded  the  sacred  ceremony;  and  then  little 
edified  the  high  personages  present  by  raising  his 
hand  menacingly  to  the  duke,  calling  him  a  rascal, 
and  warning  him  of  future  vengeance  for  the  present 
insult.  Whether  the  confusion  that  followed  fright- 
ened the  baby  or  not  cannot  be  certified ;  but  in  a  few 
weeks  that  lucky  baby  had  the  good  chance  to  die ; 
and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  he  being  lord  chamber- 
lain, had  the  unenviable  superintendence  of  the  fu- 
neral ;  so  that  wicked  people  said  that  his  grace  had 
not  only  introduced  the  infant  prince  into  the  bosom, 
but  also  into  the  bowels,  of  the  Church. 

From  this  period  there  was  never  real  reconcilia- 
tion between  the  father  and  son.  They  quarrelled 
so  intensely  that  the  power  to  be  mutually  hateful 
seemed  innate  in  them ;  and  Lord  Carteret  expressed 
a  belief  that  the  family  would  quarrel  everlastingly 
from  generation  to  generation. 

The  christening  scene  led  to  some  unhappy  results. 
A  deputation  of  noblemen  waited  on  the  prince,  by 
order  of  the  king,  to  know  the  exact  words  used  by 
him ;  which,  the  prince  said,  were  not  "  You  rascal,  I 
will  fight  you ! "  but  "  You  rascal,  I  will  find  you ! " 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  477 

meaning  an  opportunity  of  having  vengeance,  as  was 
still  his  Royal  Highness' s  intention.  The  king's 
envoys  drew  up  a  number  of  articles  binding  the 
prince  to  the  most  absolute,  not  to  say  abject,  de- 
pendence on  his  father.  These  he  refused  to  sign, 
though  he  was  strongly  urged  to  do  so  by  the  lords, 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  had  a  taste  of  the  king's 
power,  and  had  probably  found  it  greater  than  he 
had  believed  it  to  be.  This  sample  of  potentiality 
was  in  the  ejection  of  the  prince  and  his  family  from 
the  royal  palace ;  an  account  of  the  dissensions  lead- 
ing to  which,  and  consequent  correspondence,  will  be 
found  in  a  manuscript  once  belonging  to  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  and  now  deposited  in  the  British  Museum/ 
When  the  prince  and  princess,  on  the  night  of 
that  unfortunate  christening,  in  November,  .  17 17, 
were  ordered  to  leave  the  palace,  people  began  to 
cast  about  for  other  reasons  for  such  a  violent  con- 
clusion than  the  ebullition  of  the  prince.  They  found 
it,  perhaps,  in  the  king's  jealousy  of  his  son,  for  the 
latter  had  executed  his  office  of  regent  the  year  pre- 
ceding, during  his  sire's  absence  in  Hanover,  with 
such  ability  that  he  had  achieved  a  popularity,  which, 
if  it  did  not  alarm,  very  much  disgusted  the  king, 
who  never  after  reappointed  his  son  to  the  same 
office.  With  the  popularity  of  his  son,  that  of  his 
daughter-in-law  had  increased,  and  his  Majesty's  aver- 
sion from  the  "  she-devil "  became  more  marked  than 
ever.  Added  to  this,  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  a  nat- 
ural desire  to  be  independent  in  his  pecuniary  affairs, 
whereas  the  king  wished  him  to  be  in  dependence  on 
his  father,  and  to  be  satisfied  with  a  small  revenue. 
'  Egerton  MSS.  921. 


478       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

"A  small  revenue,"  and  one  may  fancy  what  the 
royal  feeling  was  when  the  Tories  joined  in  demand- 
ing for  the  prince  ;£"  100,000  a  year,  free  from  all 
paternal  control !  So  the  quarrel  went  on  from  what 
was  unseemly  to  what  was  criminal,  exhibiting  the 
latter  phase -when  the  Earl  of  Berkeley  saw  such 
unnatural  ferocity  in  the  king's  mind  as  to  authorise 
him  to  offer  to  relieve  the  monarch  and  father  of  his 
intolerable  torment,  by  carrying  off  the  Prince  of 
Wales  to  America,  where  the  earl  undertook  so  to 
dispose  of  him  that  he  should  never  again  be  heard 
of  in  England.  A  document  containing  this  offer  at 
the  hands  of  the  overzealous  earl  was  found  among 
the  papers  of  George  I.,  after  his  decease;  and  the 
earl  himself  died  abroad  in  the  year  1738.  If  this 
oft-cited  circumstance  be  true,  I  take  it  as  a  proof 
of  great  improvement  in  the  tone  and  morals  of  the 
times  as  compared  with  any  preceding  period  beyond 
a  hundred  years  or  so.  Then,  unpleasant  kinsmen 
were  got  rid  of  with  alacrity,  by  dagger,  smothering, 
or  drowning  in  Malmsey  casks,  or  judicial  murdering. 
Now,  a  single  peer  is  found  who  only  proposes  de- 
portation and  perpetual  imprisonment.  To  the  lat- 
ter, the  king  had  already  condemned  his  wife.  The 
earl  only  proposed  to  add  banishment  to  captivity  in 
the  person  of  her  son.  For  the  assassination  of  the 
first  Prince  of  Wales  of  the  House  of  Plantagenet, 
Lord  Berkeley  lent  his  castle ;  and  for  the  kidnapping 
of  the  first  Prince  of  Wales  of  the  House  of  Bruns- 
wick, we  find  another  equally  ready.  Is  this  an  in- 
stance of  the  instincts  of  race.?  If  it  be  true  at 
all,  it  clearly  shows  an  improvement  in  certain  social 
principles,  indicating  at  least  a  respect  for  the  sacred- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  479 

ness  of  life,  unknown  to  the  grand  unscrupulosity  of 
the  feudal  period. 

However  this  may  be,  nothing  serious  came  of  it. 
The  king  was  satisfied  with  ejecting  the  prince  and 
his  family  from  the  palace,  when  both  were  in  deli- 
cate health.  They  took  temporary  refuge  in  "private 
lodgings,"  in  Albemarle  Street,  where,  in  fact.  Lord 
Grantham,  chamberlain  to  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
gave  up  to  them  his  own  residence.  Subsequently, 
they  removed  to  old  Leicester  House,  in  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  square.  There  the  Sidneys  had 
domiciled,  there  imperial  ambassadors  had  resided, 
there  the  ancestress  of  the  prince,  Elizabeth,  Queen 
of  Bohemia,  had  found  a  home.  It  might  well  suf- 
fice, therefore,  for  a  royal  couple  in  disgrace.  There, 
accordingly,  they  proceeded  to  keep  house,  establish 
a  court,  and  receive  company ;  but  visitors  were  men- 
acingly warned  off  by  a  thundering  proclamation  in 
the  London  Gazette.  Since  the  days  when  Caracalla 
would  not  receive  those  who  paid  their  respects  to 
Geta,  nor  Geta  ever  bow  to  the  visitors  of  his  brother 
Caracalla,  never  had  quarrel  of  royal  kinsmen  taken 
such  a  spiteful  aspect  as  this. 

London  was  but  a  dull  metropolis  under  good  Queen 
Anne.  Gaiety,  dissipation,  and  intrigue  came  in  with 
the  new  reigning  family.  Even  during  the  troubled 
year  1715,  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  had 
established  a  brilliant  court,  and  led  a  sort  of  joyous 
revelry  of  which  St.  James's  had  long  been  uncon- 
scious. The  prince  loved  pleasure,  for  the  sake  of 
the  enjoyment,  the  princess  favoured  it  out  of  policy, 
and  the  fashionable  world  gratefully  hailed  them  as 
public  benefactors.     For  a  season,  the  gay  career  of 


48o       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

that  section  of  the  world  was  checked  by  the  ejection 
of  the  heir  apparent  and  his  family  from  St.  James's ; 
but  when  that  household  was  established  at  Leicester 
House,  the  fashionable  world  breathed  again,  and 
resumed  its  hilarious  race.  The  king's  house  was 
a  dull  house,  that  of  the  prince  was  laughingly  astir 
from  morning  till  half  through  the  night.  There, 
fashion  fixed  her  headquarters,  and  people  of  quality 
risked  being  repulsed  from  the  levees  at  St.  James's 
for  the  dear  delights  of  a  night  of  it  in  Leicester 
Fields. 

It  was  more  a  highly  pleasant  than  an  exceedingly 
proper  court  which  was  there  established.  Most  con- 
spicuous, and  most  dignified  figure  of  all  which  there 
challenged  attention  was  that  of  the  Princess  of  Wales 
herself.  That  tall  figure  amid  her  maids  looked  like 
Diana  among  her  nymphs,  towering  over  the  tallest 
there.  At  a  little  distance,  she  wore  an  air  of  striking 
beauty,  but  they  who  approached  her  nearly  distin- 
guished the  spoiling  of  that  beauty  in  the  traces  left 
by  smallpox.  In  the  later  years  of  the  Leicester 
House  period,  she  grew  corpulent ;  thereby,  her 
beauty  and  dignity  suffered  a  little;  and  therewith, 
Sir  Robert  Walpole  conferred  on  her  a  nasty  name. 

The  princess  had  ladies  about  her  not  more  fair 
than  they  were  frivolous,  but  she  was  not  attached  to 
them  because  of  their  frivolity.  She  esteemed  best 
those  who  were  of  better  quality;  and  made  Lady 
Cowper  her  confidante,  because  she  knew  that  that 
lady  had  an  inviolable  regard  for  truth.  For  this 
virtue,  too,  did  she  and  the  prince  also  especially  love 
the  third  of  her  five  daughters  —  the  gentle  and  truth- 
ful Caroline,  who  is  unobtrusive  in  history,  but  whose 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  481 

life    had    its    own    peculiar,    cherished,   yet    painful 
romance. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  Lady  Cowper 
was  the  only  honest  woman  at  this  court,  but  she 
was  probably  the  only  serious  one.  In  other  qualities 
the  nymphs  of  honour  excelled  her,  as  might  be  seen 
any  night,  when  the  brilliant  rooms  were  occupied  by 
a  select  company,  and  the  most  accomplished  of  the 
maids  and  gentlemen  were  present,  the  prince  form- 
ing their  centre,  and  the  princess  seated  apart  with 
"  Cowper,"  in  an  inner  room,  but  still  visible,  playing 
at  cards.  Then  might  be  heard  the  silvery  laugh  of 
the  daughter  of  General  Lepel,  not  yet  out  of  her 
teens.  The  smartness  of  her  humour  passed  for  wit, 
and  well  sustained  the  general  laughter.  She  was  a 
sensible,  well-bred,  accompli  shed  girl,  of  extraordinary 
vivacity,  but  this  was  under  control  of  her  discretion. 
This  saved  her  from  being  merely  frivolous ;  and, 
indeed,  she  could  look  as  serious  as  Lady  Cowper 
herself,  and  could  construe  a  page  of  Caesar  as  readily 
as  any  clerk,  except  Swift,  who  visited  the  court. 
The  clerics  philandered  with  her  in  return  as  readily 
as  the  courtiers,  and  this  circumstance  justified  the 
assertion  of  Chesterfield  in  his  own  eyes,  that  — 

*♦  Should  the  Pope  himself  ever  go  roaming, 
He  would  follow  dear  Molly  Lepel." 

His  then  erratic  Holiness,  however,  would  perhaps 
have  hesitated,  if  he  could  have  entered  Leicester 
House,  and  beheld  that  other  vivacious  Mary,  who 
had  less  discretion  and  more  audacity  than  Mary 
Lepel  —  namely,  Mary,  daughter  of  Lord  Bellenden. 
She,  perhaps,  touched  more  hearts  than  any  other  of 


482        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  youthful  and  brilliant  maids.  She  touched,  at 
least,  the  prince's,  who  wooed  her  in  the  mingled 
spirit  of  a  miser  and  a  libertine,  and  at  whose  adora- 
tion this  Mary  only  laughed.  Audacity  was  one  of 
her  characteristics,  and  yet  Gay  says  she  was  "  soft 
and  fair  as  down."  But,  when  in  waiting,  she  would 
stand  before  the  prince  with  her  arms  folded,  as  if 
she  were  cold,  as  deliberately  as  newer  maids  of 
honour  would  thoughtlessly  turn  their  backs  upon 
the  princess  herself.  This  exquisite  creature's  wit 
was  of  a  coarser  sort,  but,  for  that  matter,  so  was  her 
royal  mistress's,  who  would  both  narrate  and  give  ear 
to  stories  of  the  most  galliarde  description. 

Loudest  laugher  at  such  stories  was  Sophia  Howe 
—  the  wild,  frivolous,  daring,  careless,  irreverent 
daughter  of  the  general  of  that  name.  She  laughed 
as  loudly  at  church  as  she  did  at  court,  framed  un- 
clean jokes  on  her  vocation  of  maid  of  honour,  and 
gained  not  only  pardon  but  applause,  by  right  of  her 
intoxicating  beauty.  In  strong  contrast  with  these 
young  ladies,  and  with  many  other  older  contem- 
poraries at  this  princely  court  in  "the  Fields,"  was 
the  virtuous  Miss  Meadows,  whom  the  fine  gentlemen 
called  a  "prude,"  light  goets  sneered  at  as  "chaste," 
and  whose  self-respect  afforded  as  much  amusement 
to  the  licentious  courtiers  as  the  startling  wit  of 
Lepel  or  Bellenden.  Had  Miss  Meadows  possessed 
the  wit  of  either,  she  might  have  been  as  virtuous  as 
Mary  Lepel  was,  without  incurring  more  blame  or 
mockery  for  being  so. 

Amid  these  maids,  love,' true  and  false,  found  its 
way,  especially  when  the  prince  was  not  near,  monop- 
olising the  fair  train;  for  he  would  sometimes  take 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  483 

the  whole  bevy  with  him,  on  horseback,  to  Hampton 
Court,  and  there  treat  them  or  fatigue  them  with  a 
whole  day's  hunting.  Away  they  went,  after  a  break- 
fast at  which  Westphalia  ham  largely  figured,  on 
hired  hacks,  leaping  hedges  and  ditches,  and  acquir- 
ing thereby  a  complexion  that  made  them  look  like 
Phillises  of  the  dairy,  and  a  constitution  improved  to 
the  degree  that  rendered  them  eligible  to  be  the  wives 
of  fox-hunting  squires.  When  the  prince  led  his 
maidens  back,  and  these  had  effaced  the  marks  and 
got  rid  of  the  consequences  of  their  morning's  fatigu- 
ing pleasure,  then  came  the  time  for  the  lovers,  who 
plied  their  vocation  while  the  princess  looked  more 
or  less  concernedly  on,  as  she  was  interested  in  the 
swains,  of  whom  her  husband  is  one. 

With  the  mental  eye  we  may  see  him  whispering 
to  Mary  Bellenden,  or  counting  his  gold  before  her 
eyes,  till  she  contrives  to  knock  the  money  out  of  his 
hand,  and  moves  away  to  hold  discourse  with  a  likely 
young  soldier,  one  Colonel  John  Campbell,  whose 
earnestness  to  further  the  young  lady's  immediate 
object  is  warrant  of  a  wedding  to  come. 

Meanwhile,  who  is  that  handsome  but  effeminate 
young  gentleman  by  the  side  of  Mary  Lepel  ^  He  is 
one  of  the  prince's  gentlemen  of  the  bedchamber,  and 
is  fresh  from  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge.  They  are  the 
prettiest  pair  of  philosophic  infidels  within  the  limits 
of  this  easy  court ;  and  no  one  doubts  that  Lord 
John  Hervey  can  fail  in  any  suit  to  the  nymph  whose 
ear  —  nay,  whose  cheek  —  is  so  near  to  his  eloquent 
lips. 

With  what  a  swagger  does  Nanty  Lowther,  Lord 
Lonsdale's  brother,  swing  himself  from  the  presence 


484       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  the  prince,  to  pass  over  to  the  bold  and  beautiful 
Sophy  Howe,  who  has  displayed  her  telegraphic  fan. 
I  am  not  sure  that  she  has  not  winked  her  eye  to 
bring  him  to  her  side.  Of  that  pair  came  much  love, 
much  trusting,  on  the  part  of  the  lady ;  much 
promise,  much  treachery,  on  the  part  of  the  wooer ; 
and  then  followed  despair  and  death  to  close  the 
tumultuous  life  of  this  dazzling  beauty. 

At  present,  however,  they  look  happy  enough,  and 
the  general  aspect  of  things  might  lead  us  to  doubt 
the  assertion  of  Pope,  on  the  alleged  authority  of  some 
of  these  giddy  girls  themselves,  who  had  given  him  a 
dinner  in  their  rooms,  and  walked  with  him  by  moon- 
light in  the  gardens  at  Hampton  Court,  that  the  life 
of  a  maid  of  honour  was  of  all  things  the  most  miser- 
able ;  that  every  one  who  envied  it  should  try  it  in 
her  own  person ;  and  that  the  worst  portion  of  it 
all  was  at  night,  when  they  had  to  simper  and  catch 
cold  in  the  princess's  apartment,  and  then  walked, 
worked,  or  thought,  till  midnight.  If  Richmond  or 
Hampton  Court  were  held  as  dull  as  a  lone  house  in 
Wales  with  a  mountain  and  a  rookery,  such  was  not 
the  case  with  the  court  in  Leicester  Fields,  —  though 
men  of  gloomy  aspect  came  even  there.  Is  there 
not,  for  instance,  something  sinister  in  the  aspect  of 
that  young  peer  whose  attention  the  prince  is  direct- 
ing toward  Mary  Bellenden  ?  He  is  one  of  the 
prince's  gentlemen  of  the  bedchamber,  young  Lord 
Lumley,  whose  father,  the  Earl  of  Scarborough,  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  Sedgemoor.  He  is  handsome, 
of  graceful  carriage,  of  amiable  expression,  and  of 
profound  gravity  ;  rarely  smiling,  yet  when  he  does 
so  unbend,  as  cheering  as  a  sunbeam ;  whose  polite- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  485 

ness  sets  on  him  as  an  easy  habit,  and  whose  dignity 
has  in  it  no  taint  of  pride.  He  is  not  without  some 
fashionable  vices,  and  Mary  Lepel  could  jest  with 
him  about  these,  or  read  with  him  a  fervent  ode  from 
Horace.  He  looks  what  he  is,  a  perfect  gentleman, 
whose  virtues  outnumber  his  vices,  and  whose  excel- 
lences can  hardly  be  enumerated.  But  his  fine 
features  are  overcast  with  melancholy  ;  he  is  absent, 
even  when  the  prince  addresses  him  ;  is  silent  amid 
the  crowd  of  courtiers  by  whom  the  prince  is  sur- 
rounded, and  moves  from  the  circle  as  if  he  heeded 
neither  man  nor  woman  upon  earth. 

Nay,  this  son  of  gloom,  whom  incipient  madness  is 
rendering  familiar  with  the  thought  of  suicide,  surely 
loves  that  intellectually  marked  yet  profligate-looking 
courtier,  another  gentleman  of  the  bedchamber,  who 
moves  with  him  toward  the  table  where  the  princess 
is  at  cards.  They  look  on  each  other  as  men  who 
nourish  a  mutual  warm  regard.  Lord  Lumley's  com- 
panion is  the  very  young,  if  not  very  honourable, 
member  for  St.  Germans,  Mr.  Philip  Dormer  Stan- 
hope, who  loves  poor  Dick  Lumley  more  than  all  the 
world  besides.  As  they  advance,  the  princess  is 
retiring  from  the  card-table,  and  Mr.  Stanhope  begins 
to  mimic  her  voice.  The  maids  of  honour  titter, 
and  Caroline  turns  sharply  round,  whereat  Mr.  Stan- 
hope bows  lower  than  he  would  ever  bow  to  aught 
else  human  or  divine.  Acknowledging  the  homage, 
the  princess  proceeds  to  the  larger  room,  and  the 
impudent  Mr.  Stanhope  gravely  follows  her,  imitating 
her  walk  ;  and  Lord  Lumley  accompanies  him,  turn- 
ing as  he  turns,  but  neither  speaking,  nor  smiling,  nor 
heeding  the  farce  enacted  at  his  side,  but  thinking  of 


486        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Roman  heroes  who  flung  off  the  load  of  life  they 
could  not  bear,  and  of  bold  unfortunates  nearer  home 
who  by  swift  death  escaped  from  human  ills. 

Meanwhile,  at  one  of  the  card-tables  in  the  inner 
room  there  is  a  party  still  playing,  although  the 
princess  has  retired  from  that  wearying  relaxation. 
The  prince  approaches  his  wife,  and  by  words  not 
heard,  directs  her  notice  to  one  of  the  players,  a  su- 
preme beauty,  whose  provoking  loveliness  had  caused 
a  pulsation  or  so  the  more  in  the  prince's  heart.  He 
would  perhaps  have  felt  increase  of  admiration  were 
she  accustomed  to  go  less  frequently  to  St.  James's 
and  come  more  often  to  Leicester  House.  In  spite 
of  London  Gazettes,  this  is  a  Venus  Victrix  who 
goes  whither  she  pleases,  and  visits  either  court  at 
her  capricious  will.  She  is  the  Duke  of  Kingston's 
daughter.  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  and  is  so 
charmingly  attired  that  the  prince  raises  his  voice  to 
express  his  admiration  of  the  taste  therein  displayed. 
The  princess  looks  for  a  moment  at  the  glittering 
beauty,  and  then  scornfully  remarking  that  "  Lady 
Mary  always  dresses  well,"  leans  on  "  Cowper's " 
shoulder,  and  is  led  by  that  lady  to  a  couch.  The 
prince  looks  momentarily  as  much  troubled  as  when 
Mary  Bellenden,  after  promising  never  to  marry 
without  his  knowledge,  and  aware  that  he  was  dis- 
posed to  impede  her  marrying  with  any  one,  went  and 
privately  married  happy  Colonel  Campbell.  Subse- 
quently he  would  pursue  the  offending  lady  about  the 
court,  and  whisper  ruder  speeches  in  her  ear  than  it 
were  seemly  for  prince  or  gentleman  to  utter. 

The  prince  might  have  admired  his  own  wife  when 
she  was  attired  in  a  dress  made  from  the  piece  of 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  487 

Irish  silk  which  she  condescended  to  receive  from 
Swift.  The  Irish  clergyman  thought  more  of  his 
gift  than  it  was  worth,  and  built  more  hopes  thereon 
than  the  fact  or  the  result  justified.  The  princess, 
however,  was  so  graciously  condescending,  and  the 
prince  so  favourably  inclined  toward  the  "  Irish 
Parson,"  as  to  exact  a  remark  from  Lord  Peter- 
borough that  set  the  whole  court  laughing.  "  Swift," 
said  he,  "  has  now  only  to  chalk  his  pumps  and  learn 
to  dance  on  the  tight  rope  to  be  yet  a  bishop !  " 

If  the  princess  did  not  laugh  at  the  remark,  she 
was  hilarious  over  the  book  he  subsequently  wrote. 
Arbuthnot  relates  that  he  saw  her  reading  this  work, 
and  that  at  coming  to  one  particular  passage  she 
laughed  heartily.  The  laugh  was  at  the  expense  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  had  been  wavering  between 
Whigs  and  Tories,  the  High-heels  and  the  Low-heels 
of  the  romance ;  and  when  the  heir  apparent  of  Lilli- 
put  was  described  as  wearing  one  heel  high  and  the 
other  low,  she  recognised  the  aim  of  the  satire,  and 
laughed  at  the  shaft  so  exquisitely  feathered.  Scott, 
in  his  Life  of  Swift,  tells  us  of  another  incident, 
namely,  that  at  the  description  given  above,  the 
Prince  of  Wales  himself,  who  at  that  time  divided  his 
favour  between  the  two  leading  political  parties  of 
England,  laughed  very  heartily  at  the  comparison. 

He  laughed  less  heartily,  but  the  princess  even 
more  so,  after  he  had  sought  consolation  for  the 
indifference  of  Mary  Bellenden  in  the  attachment 
of  his  wife's  woman  of  the  bedchamber,  the  Hon- 
ourable Mrs.  Howard.  This  lady,  who  had  all  that 
a  lady  could  desire,  except  beauty  and  virtue,  was 
summoned  by  her  very  worthless  husband  to  return 


488       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF   WALES 

to  him  when  he  affected  to  believe  that  her  reputation 
was  in  peril  at  court.  He  had  summoned  in  vain ; 
but  at  last  he  addressed  a  letter  to  his  light-o'-love 
wife,  under  cover  to  the  Princess  of  Wales,  and  that 
august  lady  never  had  a  merrier  moment  than  when 
she  had  what  Walpole  calls  "the  malicious  pleasure" 
of  delivering  this  epistle  to  her  rival. 

During  the  period  of  the  residence  of  the  "  young 
court  "  at  Leicester  House,  three  children  were  added 
to  the  princely  family.  In  1721,  that  William  whom 
the  mother,  at  once,  loved  better  than  his  elder  brother 
Frederick,  which  latter  she  would  fain  have  disinher- 
ited for  the  sake  of  her  younger  son,  who  became 
famous  and  infamous  under  the  title  of  Duke  of 
Cumberland.  Two  years  later  was  bom  Mary,  the 
wife  subsequently  of  the  brutal  Prince  of  Hesse- 
Cassel ;  and  in  1724,  Louisa,  who  died  Queen,  and 
an  unhappy  Queen,  of  Denmark. 

The  births  of  these  children  less  interrupted  the 
gay  court-routine,  than  the  determined  attempt  of 
the  king,  their  grandfather,  to  keep  them  entirely 
under  his  own  care  and  control.  He  sought  to  effect 
this  by  interpretation  of  law,  but  Lord  Chancellor 
Cowper  interpreted  that  law  in  favour  of  the  father, 
and  the  grandfather  deprived  him  of  the  seals.  Chief 
Justice  Parker  and  nine  other  judges  pronounced  in 
favour  of  the  king ;  and  there  were  two  others,  — 
Eyre,  the  chancellor  of  the  princess,  and  sturdy  little 
Price,  the  Welsh  baron,  who,  by  foiling  William  III. 
and  Lord  Portland,  had  saved  the  principality,  as  he 
said,  from  being  subjected  to  a  Dutch  Prince  of 
Wales,  —  these  two  so  strenuously  opposed  the  vio- 
lation of  the  law,  that  the  king  was  compelled  to 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER  489 

forego  his  pretensions;  but  he  rewarded  Parker  for 
his  unrighteous  zeal  by  raising  him  to  the  chancellor- 
ship, from  whence  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the 
Leicester  House  politicians  subsequently  toppled  him 
down,  with  heavy  attendant  penalties  and  disgrace, 
under  an  accusation,  well  substantiated,  of  corrupt 
practices. 

Some  who  were  scandalised  by  the  antagonism 
between  father  and  son,  and  some,  perhaps,  who  saw 
future  profit  to  themselves  by  a  reconciliation,  effected 
this  latter  consummation,  nominally,  at  least,  if  not 
really.  The  Princess  of  Wales  had  occasionally  ap- 
peared alone  at  court,  where  she  not  only  presumed 
to  speak  to  the  king,  but  pertinaciously  compelled 
him  to  render  her  an  answer,  more  or  less  civil.  The 
king  would  not  have  much  more  to  endure  by  toler- 
ating the  presence  of  his  son.  Mutual  friends  induced 
that  son  to  address  a  dutiful  letter  to  his  sire,  one 
result  of  which  was  the  private  reception  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  at  St.  James's,  at  which  there  was  much 
stiff  civility,  but  very  little  cordiality.  The  external 
symbol,  the  sign  to  the  public,  that  father  and  son 
were  on  friendly  terms,  was  the  attendance  of  a 
mounted  escort  to  reconduct  in  honour  the  prince 
and  princess  to  their  home.  The  Muses  celebrated 
this  important  event,  but  only  in  a  drowsy  and  slip- 
shod style,  as  a  sample  of  which  here  are  five  lines  out 
of  the  best  batch  of  rhymes  produced  on  the  occasion  : 

"  A  Caroline  at  St.  James's  seen, 
Great  is  her  virtue  who  is  beauty's  queen ; 
A  prince  whose  wisdom  in  retirement  shown, 
I  dare  presage  the  future  times  shall  own, 
Will  make  him  glorious  on  the  British  throne.'* 


490       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

The  opportunity  to  achieve  glory  soon  presented 
itself  to  the  prince,  after  a  few  more  years  of  court 
life  at  Leicester  House,  and  country  life  at  Richmond 
Lodge,  where  Swift  sponged  a  breakfast  once  a  week, 
and  decried  the  bread  as  stale ;  and  where  the  maids 
abused  their  vocation,  drank  syllabubs,  roamed  about 
at  moonlight,  and  enjoyed  themselves  to  the  utmost. 
Meanwhile,  the  reconciliation  of  the  king  and  his  heir 
caused  a  vast  amount  of  claret  to  be  drunk  by  loyal 
and  tippling  squires,  whose  loud  hurrahs  might  have 
reached  Richmond  itself. 

It  was  in  that  sunny  retreat  that,  on  the  14th  of 
June,  1727,  the  prince  and  princess  were  residing, 
when  they  were  aroused  from  sleep  by  no  less  a  mes- 
senger than  Sir  Robert  Walpole.  The  minister  came 
to  announce  to  them  the  sudden  death  of  George  L 
at  Osnaburgh.  The  prince  listened  to  the  startling 
intelligence,  between  asleep  and  awake,  "with  his 
breeches  in  his  hand." '  The  princess  was  in  a 
fainting  condition,  for  her  first  thought  had  been 
for  her  daughter  Amelia,  who  was  in  delicate  health. 
But  the  news  was  of  a  quality  to  thoroughly  awake 
the  one,  and  reassure  the  other.  They  were  King 
and  Queen  of  England. 

*  "  Coxe's  Life  of  Walpole,"  vol.  ii.  p.  519. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

FREDERICK    LOUIS    OF    HANOVER 
Bom  1707.     Died  1751 

"They  were  King  and  Queen  of  England,"  and 
the  now  heir  apparent  was  a  young  man  in  his  twen- 
tieth year,  who  since  he  was  seven  years  of  age  had 
never  seen  any  of  his  family  except  his  father,  and 
him  only  at  brief  visits,  when  the  latter  was  sojourning 
in  Hanover. 

Frederick  Louis  was  bom  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1707.  He  had  in  him  the  "  stuff  "  to  make,  if  not  a 
great  man,  yet  one  of  some  mark,  but  his  education 
was  defective,  and  was  not  cared  for  like  that  of  his 
brother  William,  whose  mother  asked  in  vain  the 
philosopher  Halley  to  condescend  to  be  his  tutor. 
The  gentleman  who  performed  that  office  to  Fred- 
erick did  his  best  with  his  pupil,  who  when  a  mere 
boy  was  a  sprightly,  intelligent  lad,  self-possessed, 
courteous,  and  remarkable  for  one  beauty  at  least,  — 
that  of  his  hair.  He  was  little  more  than  a  boy  when 
he  gave  up  his  many  leisure  hours  to  gambling  and 
drinking,  and  became  so  coarse  and  violent  in  his 
manners,  that  the  tutor  complained  thereof  to  his 
pupil's  mother.  The  princess  said  that  the  manners 
alluded  to  were  doubtless  those  of  a  youthful  page, 
but  the  honest  tutor  replied  that  they  were  rather 
those  of  a  scoundrelly  groom.    The  "  young  hopeful " 

491 


492         THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

was  left  to  follow  his  own  inclinations,  and  he  speed- 
ily imitated  his  father  and  grandfathers  in  one  thing, 
the  public  maintenance  of  worthless  women.  It  was 
not  for  his  virtues  that  his  grandfather  is  said  to  have 
created  him  Duke  of  Gloucester ;  but  the  patent  for 
that  title  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  passed  the  seals. 
"On  the  15th  of  July,  1726,  George  I.  created  him 
Baron  of  Snowdon,  in  the  county  of  Caernarvon,  Vis- 
count of  Launceston,  in  Cornwall,  Earl  of  Eltham,  in 
Kent,  Marquis  of  the  Isle  of  Ely,  and  Duke  of  Edin- 
burgh, which  patent  did  pass  the  seals,  and  was  actu- 
ally sent  to  him ;  for  I  know,  from  the  generosity 
which  afterward  appeared  in  all  his  actions,  he  made 
the  messenger  who  had  the  good  luck  to  be  sent  with 
it  a  very  handsome  present.  Perhaps  the  reason  for 
not  passing  the  first  patent  was  because  it  was  deemed 
an  unfortunate  title ;  for  Thomas,  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, uncle  to  Richard  II.,  was  carried  prisoner  to 
Calais,  and  there  murdered;  Humphrey,  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  uncle  to  Henry  VI.,  was  clapt  up  in 
prison,  and  there  privately  murdered  ;  Richard,  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  afterward  Richard  III.,  was  slain  in 
Bosworth  Field ;  Henry,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  young- 
est son  of  Charles  I.,  died  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his 
age,  and  just  after  his  return  from  exile,  so  that  he 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  ever  enjoyed  any  happiness 
in  this  life;  and  William,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  only 
son  of  Queen  Anne,  died  in  the  twelfth  year  of  his  age, 
after  the  death  of  his  aunt.  Queen  Mary,  and  before 
his  mother's  accession  to  the  crown."  ' 

'  •'  A  succinct  and  impartial  history  of  all  the  regencies,  protec- 
torships, minorities,  and  princes  of  England,  or  Great  Britain  and 
Wales,  that  have  been  since  the  Conquest.  With  a  profuse  dedica- 
tion to  a  great  duke.    London.     17  51." 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  493 

They  who  take  an  interest  in  royal  titles  in  the 
peerage,  may  be  glad  to  know  how  the  error  arose 
as  to  the  eldest  son  of  George  Augustus,  Prince  of 
Wales,  having  been  created  Duke  of  Gloucester.  I 
cite  the  following  from  a  communication  made  by 
Mr.  John  Gough  Nichols  to  Sylvanus  Urban,  in 
November,   185  i. 

"On  the  2nd  Nov.,  1717,  was  bom  at  St.  James's 
Palace,  the  second  son  of  George  Augustus,  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  was  baptised  by  the  names  of  George 
William.  I  possess  a  curious  quarto  print  repre- 
senting a  woman  seated,  with  her  breast  uncovered, 
and  a  child  in  swaddling  clothes  in  her  lap,  which 
bears  the  following  inscription  : 

"*Nurss  to  William  George,  Duke  of  Glocester. 
Born  Novemb'.  the  3^  171 7  Second  Son  to  their 
Royal  Highnesses  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales. 
Sold  by  T.  Bakewell  in  Cornhill.* 

"  This,  then,  appears  to  have  been  the  prince  who 
was  designated  Duke  of  Gloucester  at  the  period  in 
question ;  and  probably  the  public  announcement 
of  such  designation  was  made  on  the  loth  Jan. 
171 7-18.     He  died  on  the  2nd  of  March  following." 

Mr.  J.  G.  Nichols  concludes  by  remarking,  that 
"when  Prince  William  Henry,  brother  to  King 
George  the  Third,  was  created  a  peer  in  1 764,  he  was 
made  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  Edinburgh.  Was  this 
a  consequence  of  the  former  supposed  association 
of  the  titles  in  the  person  of  Prince  Frederick 
Lewis  ?  If  so,  it  proved  the  permanence,  and  in 
some  degree  established  the  triumph,  of  what  I  have 
now  given  some  reason  to  conclude  was  originally 
the   popular  misapprehension  of   attributing  to  the 


494       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

prince's  eldest  son  Frederick  the  title  which  had 
been  really  assigned  to  his  son  George  William." 

It  was  not  out  of  any  affection  on  the  part  of  his 
parents  that  Frederick  was  summoned  to  England, 
but  rather  to  appease  the  impatience  of  the  people, 
jealous  at  the  heir  apparent  remaining  in  the  Conti- 
nental portion  of  his  inheritance.  It  was  all  the 
inheritance  that  the  king  and  queen  would  have  per- 
mitted him  to  enjoy,  could  they  have  followed  their 
own  inclinations.  George  I.,  but  for  Lord  Maccles- 
field, would  have  plundered  his  son  of  the  electoral 
crown ;  and  George  II.  and  his  consort  were  equally 
disposed  to  deprive  their  eldest  son  of  the  crown  of 
England.  To  this  country,  however,  they  were  com- 
pelled at  last  to  invite  him ;  and  in  his  2 2d  year  he 
came  hither,  in  no  very  amiable  frame  of  mind,  for 
he  was  oppressed  by  debt  in  Hanover,  and  his  sire 
refused  all  help  toward  liquidating  his  obligations. 

Frederick  was  received  with  scanty  courtesy, 
except  by  a  political  party  who  knew  how  to  make 
a  weak,  vain,  and  angry  man  useful.  Beyond  his 
father's  court  he  was  at  first  generally  popular, — 
and  not  without  reason,  since  he  was  affable  and  con- 
descending, but  woe  to  them  who  presumed  thereon, 
and  attempted  to  be  familiar  with  him  !  He  was 
also  a  great  advocate  of  liberty,  and  supporter  of 
toleration,  but  he  allowed  of  no  conscience  in  his 
own  faction,  implicit  obedience  being  required  by 
him.  He  was  courteous,  too,  —  when  he  was  not  dis- 
pleased ;  communicative  or  reserved,  only  as  it  suited 
his  own  purposes  ;  and  a  man  of  excellent  sentiments, 
only,  like  the  younger  Mr.  Surface,  he  had  too  many 
of  them  on  his  lips,  without   corresponding  action. 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  495 

He  was  so  meek  of  spirit  as  to  appear  in  public 
followed  by  not  more  than  a  couple  of  servants ;  but 
this  was  subsequent  to  his  never-ending  feud  with 
his  father,  when  to  ape  humility  was  to  place  him- 
self, as  he  thought,  in  favourable  contrast  with  the 
stately  royalty  of  his  sire. 

Never,  probably,  will  light  fall  on  the  one  great 
origin  of  that  bitter  feud  which  made  of  Frederick 
an  outcast  from  Ris  family,  hated  by  his  father,  exe- 
crated by  his  mother,  held  in  withering  contempt  by 
his  brother,  and  in  abhorrence  by  the  most  gentle 
of  his  sisters.  But  this  feud  had  many  feeders,  and 
"  money  "  was  the  name  of  one  of  them.  The  prince 
was  at  once  too  ill-provided  for,  and  too  exacting  in 
his  demands ;  but  the  king  was  thought  by  some 
to  have  been  sufficiently  generous  when  he  offered  to 
allow  his  son  ;£  5  0,000  per  annum,  free  of  all  external 
control.  The  dissension  referring  to  his  allowance 
continued  for  years,  but  he  was  finally  defeated  when 
Pulteney  in  the  Commons,  and  Carteret  in  the  Lords, 
moved  for  double  the  income  named  above,  and  the 
motion,  all  but  triumphant  in  the  Lower  House,  was 
all  but  kicked  out  of  the  upper  one. 

When  he  was  ostentatious  in  dissipation  and  in  his 
disobedience  to  his  natural  and  legal  superiors,  mar- 
riage  was  thought  of  as  a  means  to  bring  about  an 
amelioration.  Years  before,  there  had  been  a  project 
to  unite  him  with  a  princess  of  Prussia,  but  a  state 
intrigue  impeded  that  match,  to  which  Frederick  was 
so  inclined,  that  he  displayed  in  connection  therewith 
the  chivalry  of  a  knight  and  lover.  He  privately 
offered  to  the  mother  of  the  young  lady  to  contract 
the  union  unknown  to,  or  in  spite  of,  his  father.     So 


496       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

runs  one  legend ;  and  by  a  second  we  are  told  that 
when  the  Prince  of  Wales  (a  title  the  patent  of  which 
was  granted  to  him  soon  after  he  reached  London) 
was  in  sore  perplexity  for  want  of  money,  the  old 
Duchess  of  Marlborough  proposed  to  him  to  take 
her  charming  granddaughter,  Lady  Diana  Spencer, 
with  ;^ 1 00,000.  The  prince  agreed,  and  this  clan- 
destine marriage  would  one  day  have  astounded  the 
gossips,  had  not  Sir  Robert  Walpole  impeded  the 
eager  swain,  and  saved  the  prince  from  folly,  Lady 
Diana  from  misery,  and  the  old  duchess  from  a 
costly  triumph. 

It  was  evidently  time  to  bind  this  wayward  young 
man  by  some  permanent  bond.  He  was  at  this  very 
period  living  in  open  disreputable  fashion  with  Miss 
Vane,  whose  story  Smollett  has  incorporated  into 
his  "  Peregrine  Pickle."  When  the  prince  consented, 
with  contemptuous  indifference,  to  accept  for  his 
wife  the  Princess  Augusta  of  Saxe-Gotha,  he  was 
constrained  to  set  aside  Miss  Vane,  behaving  at  the 
same  time  with  unprincely  shabbiness  to  that  unhappy 
lady,  and  taking  in  her  stead  the  Lady  Archibald 
Hamilton,  a  plain  woman  with  ten  children,  and  a 
brigade  of  kinsfolk  for  whom  poor  England  was 
made  to  provide. 

The  bride  was  seventeen,  the  prince  twenty-nine 
years  of  age  when  this  marriage,  which  had  been 
preceded  by  no  passages  of  pleasant  wooing,  was 
celebrated  in  the  Royal  Chapel  at  St  James's,  on  the 
27th  of  April,  1736.  For  the  courtship  that  had 
lacked,  Frederick  made  up  in  some  sort  by  his 
gallantry  in  the  reception  of  his  young  bride  on 
her  landing  at  Greenwich,  and  on  some  subsequent 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HAxNOVER  497 

occasions.  She,  too,  was  but  indifferently  educated, 
but  she  was  so  young,  so  subdued,  so  well-possessed 
of  good  taste,  tact,  and  admirable  common  sense, 
that  she  found  a  lover  in  every  man  and  woman  who 
had  opportunity  to  look  on  and  judge  of  her.  For 
the  details  of  this  marriage,  and,  indeed,  for  a  fuller 
account  of  the  life  of  the  prince  himself  than  my 
fast-vanishing  space  will  allow  me  to  give  in  this 
book  of  sketches,  I  venture  to  refer  my  readers  to 
the  fifth  chapter  of  the  first  volume  of  my  "  Queens 
of  England  of  the  House  of  Hanover."  They  will 
there  see  how  the  betrothed  pair  dined  and  boated 
together ;  how  the  bride  was  received  with  as  much 
cordiality  as  stately  ceremony  by  the  sovereigns ;  and 
how,  in  one  afternoon  and  evening,  she  dined  with 
the  royal  family,  was  "  led  to  the  altar  "  amid  billows 
of  sound  from  bells,  and  organ,  and  flourishing  trum- 
pets, and  thundering  of  cannon,  and  roar  of  human 
voices ;  how  the  august  party  thence  returned  and 
supped,  and  how  the  weary  grandeur  and  gaiety  of 
the  day  concluded  in  a  crowded  state  apartment, 
in  which  the  oppressed  bride  sat  in  costly  night-gear, 
on  a  gorgeous  bed,  and  the  bridegroom,  in  a  silver- 
tissue  gown  and  a  lace  night-cap,  bustled  among 
the  visitors,  acknowledged  their  compliments,  or 
responded  to  their  jokes. 

Frederick,  for  awhile,  loved  to  show  his  young 
bride  to  the  people,  of  whose  language  she  was 
altogether  ignorant,  and  never  became  mistress. 
She  was  a  child  in  character,  pretty  as  a  child,  and 
even  as  self-willed  as  pretty  children  generally.  Her 
most  cherished  amusement  at  first  was  the  nursing 
of  a  great  doll  she  had  brought  with  her  from  Ger- 


498       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

many,  but  Frederick  speedily  found  for  her  other 
employment  in  making  her  take  part  in  his  system 
of  annoying  the  queen,  —  a  system  which  included 
annoyance  of  his  mother  even  in  the  royal  pew  in 
the  palace  chapel.  This  was  particularly  the  case 
when  the  king  was  absent  in  Hanover;  on  one  of 
which  occasions  he  had  ordered  that  the  prince  and 
princess  should  reside  in  no  other  place  than  that  in 
which  the  queen  regent  resided.  That  the  king 
should  order,  was  sufficient  for  the  prince  that  he 
should  disobey,  and  the  small  vexations  of  one  sov- 
ereign, and  the  insane  wrath  of  the  other,  were  met 
by  an  aggravating  demeanour  of  mock  respect  on 
the  part  of  the  provoking  offender. 

Then  ensued  the  at  once  great  scandal  and  puerile 
folly,  —  what  would  have  been  a  farce  but  for  its 
attendant  ferocity,  and  what  might  have  been  a 
tragedy  but  for  the  overruling  of  Providence.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  had  kept  all  domestic  incidents  in 
which  his  parents  took  interest,  as  far  as  in  him  lay, 
entirely  strange  to  them.  The  fact  that  the  Princess 
of  Wales  was  likely  to  become  a  mother  was  only 
learned  by  them  a  month  before  a  birth  which  was 
of  political  importance  as  well  as  of  family  interest. 
The  whole  of  the  royal  family  were  then  residing  at 
Hampton  Court,  and  the  king  desired  that  under 
that  roof  the  expected  heir  should  be  born.  This 
desire  having  been  expressed,  the  prince  soon  deter- 
mined that  it  should  not  be  gratified.  The  queen, 
too,  had,  with  some  broad  and  coarse  expression, 
signified  her  intention  to  be  present  at  the  birth,  and 
Frederick  accordingly  resolved  that  it  should  take 
place  when  she  was  at  a  distance.     The  several  royal 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  499 

personages  were  in  Hampton  Court  Palace  on  the 
night  of  the  31st  of  July,  1737,  when  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  aware  of  the  indisposition  of  his  wife,  resolved 
to  carry  her  off  to  London.  This  resolution  was 
made  and  accomplished  in  spite  of  the  sufferings  and 
entreaties  of  the  poor  princess ;  she  was  borne  to 
her  carriage  in  the  arms  of  Desnoyers  (a  French 
fiddler  patronised  by  the  prince)  and  an  attendant. 
Two  or  three  other  persons  accompanied  the  prince 
and  princess ;  among  them  Lady  Archibald  Hamil- 
ton, the  favourite ;  and  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
the  expedition  made  its  way  to  St.  James's  from 
Hampton  Court  Palace,  where  their  Majesties  had 
gone  to  rest,  only  to  be  aroused  to  consciousness  and 
fury  by  the  intelligence  of  the  flight.  The  queen, 
suitably  accompanied,  set  off  in  hot  pursuit,  but  she 
arrived  at  the  palace  in  London,  only  after  the  birth 
of  the  little  "  Lady  Augusta,"  whom  our  grandfathers 
may  remember  in  London,  the  widowed  mother  of 
Caroline  of  Brunswick.  Lady  Augusta  had  come 
into  the  world  under  circumstances  of  peril  and  dis- 
grace. No  preparation  had  been  made  for  such  an 
event  at  St.  James's,  and  the  chief  attendant  on  the 
wife  was  the  mistress  of  her  husband !  When  the 
queen  arrived,  the  prince  received  her  with  surly 
respect,  and  disgusted  her  with  details  of  the  journey 
and  its  consequences,  —  which  must  have  been  gross 
indeed,  if  her  Majesty  found  them  unpleasant  to  her 
hearing. 

Out  of  this  step  arose  the  next  stern  measure 
executed  by  the  king.  As  soon  as  the  princess  was 
able  to  be  removed,  she,  her  husband,  child,  and 
household,  were   ejected   from    St.  James's  Palace, 


500       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

with  every  circumstance  of  disgrace  that  could  be 
heaped  upon  them.  Neither  alleged  sorrow  nor  ver- 
bose apology  could  touch  the  king  and  queen,  — 
they  flung,  as  it  were,  the  offenders  into  the  street, 
—  and  even  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  refused  to  let  to 
them  his  house  in  St.  James's  Square,  without  the 
sanction  of  the  sovereign. 

For  the  horrible  and  unnatural  state  of  antagonism 
in  which  the  son  had  long  lived  with  his  parents  and 
nearest  relations  there  has  never  yet  been  satisfactory 
cause  assigned.  The  loathing  of  his  mother  for  her 
firstborn  son,  the  ferocity  of  hatred  of  the  father,  the 
aversion  of  the  brother  and  sisters,  must  have  been 
excited  by  some  stronger  offence  than  any  of  which 
Frederick  is  known  to  have  been  guilty.  There  is  no 
foul  and  vituperative  term  in  our  language  which  the 
whole  family  did  not  spit  at  him.  The  commonest 
terms  applied  to  him  by  his  mother  were  "liar,"  "ass,'* 
"beast,"  "blackguard,"  with  intensifying  adjectives 
preceding  them.  She  openly  declared  that  her  son 
was  capable  of  murdering  her,  and  she  repeatedly 
•expressed  a  wish  that  he  were  in  his  grave !  The 
king's  roll  of  strong  epithets  was  equally  scathing; 
that  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was  of  not  much 
Tnilder  quality,  and  one  at  least  of  his  sisters  branded 
him  as  a  "nauseous  beast!"  One  individual  cogni- 
sant of  the  actual  cause  of  this  unnatural  state  of 
things  would  not  commit  it  to  paper.  "  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,"  says  Lord  Hardwicke  in  his  memoirs, 
"  informed  me  of  certain  passages  between  the  king 
and  himself,  and  between  the  queen  and  the  prince, 
of  too  high  and  secret  a  nature  even  to  be  trusted  to 
this  narrative."     Another  individual  (Lord  Hervey), 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  501 

equally  cognisant,  no  doubt,  of  the  truth,  recorded 
that  in  his  celebrated  memoirs,  but  the  passage  was 
erased  by  his  son,  the  Earl  of  Bristol.  The  pages 
containing  it  were  torn  out  of  the  manuscript,  which 
was  long  kept  from  publication,  "to  prevent,"  says 
Walpole,  "disgraceful  truths  appearing  with  regard 
to  the  late  Prince  of  Wales."  What  these  could  have 
been  it  were  not  profitable  to  conjecture ;  all  that  we 
know  for  certain  is,  that  one  man  acquainted  with 
them  would  not  entrust  them  to  paper,  and  that  the 
son  of  another  man  who  had  made  record  of  them 
would  not  allow  them  to  go  down  to  posterity. 

At  Norfolk  House,  at  Leicester  House,  and  at 
Carlton  House,  at  Kew,  and  at  the  palace  reared  by 
Villiers  on  the  majestic  terrace  at  Cliefden,  Frederick 
meanwhile  lived  altogether  a  happy  life,  and  quite  as 
respectable  as  any  illustrated  by  his  father.  The 
system  of  politics  which  had  been  essayed  in  Leices- 
ter House  in  the  time  of  the  preceding  Prince  of 
Wales  by  Pulteney,  Wyndham,  and  Carteret,  was 
successfully  established  by  Bolingbroke,  and  illus- 
trated in  the  papers  devoted  to  the  faction.  The 
object  was  to  break  up  the  Whig  ministry  and  influ- 
ences which  had  prevailed,  more  or  less,  since  the 
Revolution.  Frederick,  however,  was  personally,  as 
well  as  politically,  interested  in  the  opposition  he  set 
up  against  his  father.  Among  his  own  friends,  Fred- 
erick might  be  seen  close  to  them,  "whispering 
through  every  curl,"  as  Walpole  graphically  describes 
him.  Walpole's  brother,  Mr.,  afterward  Sir  Edward, 
was  a  favourite,  but  not  a  partisan,  at  Leicester 
House.  He  constantly  performed  with  the  prince  at 
his  private  concerts.     When  the  latter  was  organising 


502        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

his  opposition,  he  pressed  Sir  Edward  to  absent  him- 
self from  the  House  of  Commons  on  a  question  of 
the  army.  Edward  Walpole  refused,  and  on  being 
pressed  for  his  motives,  answered,  "  You  will  never 
forgive  me,  sir,  if  I  give  you  my  reasons."  "By 
G — d,  I  will,"  said  the  prince,  who  was  walking  about 
the  room  with  his  arm  round  Edward  Walpole's  shoul- 
der. The  latter  rejoined,  jestingly,  "By  G — d,  sir, 
you  will  not.  Yet  I  will  tell  you.  I  will  not  stay 
away,  because  your  father  and  mine  are  for  the  ques- 
tion." The  prince  flung  from  him  in  anger,  and  the 
princess  royal,  who  was  at  the  harpsichord,  ex- 
claimed, "Bravo,  Mr.  Walpole."  The  offending 
gentleman  attended  at  the  next  amateur  concert  at 
Leicester  House,  where  there  were  also  some  hired 
performers ;  and  the  prince  addressed  him  as  if  he 
too  were  a  fiddler  by  profession.  Edward  Walpole 
flew  in  a  rage  to  the  bell,  ordered  his  violoncello  to  be 
removed,  and  his  servants  to  be  called.  He  would 
be  affronted,  he  said,  by  no  man.  He  refused  to 
come  back,  declared  he  would  never  return,  and  went 
out  in  a  burst  of  rage,  defying  prince,  peers,  and  com- 
moners who  endeavoured  to  arrest  or  to  soothe  him. 
In  course  of  time  the  prince  apologised,  and  Edward 
Walpole  resumed  his  visits,  but  only  to  be  importuned 
to  join  the  prince's  opposition ;  and  he  wrote  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  asking  him,  how  he  would  like  him 
to  behave  when  he  came  to  be  king  ?  in  that  manner 
he  would  behave,  he  said,  while  George  H.  was  living. 
The  prince  graciously  exclaimed,  "  He  is  an  honest 
man,  and  I  will  keep  his  letter ; "  and  could  he  have 
kept  similar  men  about  him  he  might  have  been  a 
better  man  himself. 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  503 

A  large  and  a  contented  family  grew  up  around 
him  and  his  exemplary  wife,  of  which  the  eldest  son, 
George  William  Frederick,  afterward  George  III., 
was  bom  in  Norfolk  House,  St.  James's  Square, 
on  the  24th  of  May  (or,  according  to  the  new  style, 
the  4th  of  June),  1738.  In  these  various  residences 
might  have  been  seen  a  varied  company :  the  Earl  of 
Chesterfield,  as  great  a  mimic  as  when  he  was  plain 
Mr.  Stanhope ;  Lady  Huntingdon,  who  left  that  sort 
of  world,  and  would  gladly  have  enticed  from  it  the 
earl,  who  would  not  follow  ;  then  there  were  gossiping 
Bathurst,  Queensberry,  the  friend  of  Gay,  and  fac- 
tious Pulteney,  with  Cobham,  and  Pitt,  the  Granvilles, 
Lyttelton,  and  (hanger-on  most  obnoxious  to  princes 
and  their  friends  generally)  a  man  who  kept  a  diary, 
—  good-natured,  weak-minded,  gossiping  Bubb  Dod- 
ington.  With  these,  and  among  others,  were  rude 
and  half-crazed  Baltimore,  the  two  Hedges,  of  whom 
Charles  wrote  smart  epigrams ;  touchy  Lord  Caer- 
narvon, proud  and  surly  Townshend,  amusing  North, 
stuttering  Johnny  Lumley,  and  the  Earl  of  Middlesex, 
whose  lady,  full  of  learning  and  ugliness,  was  the 
prince's  lady  rather  than  her  lord's. 

The  ** maids"  in  attendance  on  the  Princess  of 
Wales  must  have  lacked  the  charming  freedom  and 
fascination  which  distinguished  those  of  the  princess 
immediately  preceding,  or  they  would  not  have  been 
so  poorly  appreciated  by  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
"  head-coachman."  This  official  had  such  experience 
of  these  young  ladies  that,  on  dying,  he  left  several 
hundred  pounds  sterling  to  his  son  on  condition  that 
he  never  married  a  maid  of  honour ! 

At  Leicester  House  was  got  up  that  declamatory 


504       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

and  argumentative  tragedy  "Cato,"  enacted  by  the 
prince's  children  before  a  select  audience.  Young 
George  William  Frederick  played  the  part  of  Fortius, 
and  Quin,  it  will  be  remembered,  "taught  the  boy  to 
speak."  At  Cliefden,  too,  the  drama  was  encouraged 
within  doors,  as  well  as  manly  games  without.  For 
the  little  theatre  there  Thompson  wrote  his  "  Alfred," 
and  Thompson  was  one  of  a  class  of  men  to  whom 
the  prince  exhibited  considerable  generosity,  granting 
him  £106  per  annum,  to  make  up  in  some  degree  for 
the  loss  he  had  sustained  when  Chancellor  Hardwicke 
deprived  him  of  the  secretaryship  for  briefs,  which 
had  been  conferred  on  him  by  Chancellor  Talbot. 

Sometimes  the  prince  might  be  seen  at  cricket  on 
the  lawn,  once  receiving  a  blow  from  a  ball  which 
ultimately  led  to  his  death.  At  others,  he  would 
stroll  on  summer  eves  along  the  banks  of  the  Thames, 
not  unattended.  On  one  of  these  occasions  Shen- 
stone  was  sojourning  at  the  Sun,  at  Maidenhead,  and 
his  servant  happened  to  be  loitering  by  the  river 
side.  There  he  beheld  a  spectacle  which  sent  him 
back  ecstatic  to  his  master.  "Lord,  sir,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  I  have  seen  the  Prince  of  Wales,  accompa- 
nied by  his  nobles ! "  The  simple  fellow  took  two 
authors  —  two  Scotch  authors  —  for  peers  of  the 
realm !  The  two  in  question  were  lazy,  lounging, 
loose-dressed  Thompson,  the  other  the  equally  elegant 
but  less  gloriously  gifted  Mallet ! 

As  a  country  gentleman,  the  Prince  of  Wales  dis- 
tributed prizes  at  rowing-matches,  and  chatted  with 
labourers  at  cottage-doors ;  sometimes  passed  the 
threshold  and  partook  of  a  cottager's  dinner,  and 
twice  he  went  to  Bartholomew  fair  by  torchlight; 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  505 

he  paid  to  see  mountebanks,  feed  fortune-tellers,  and 
now  and  then  witnessed  the  baiting  of  a  bull  at 
Hockley-in-the-Hole.  As  a  fine  sort  of  gentleman, 
he  wrote  verses,  indifferently  to  his  wife  and  his 
mistress ;  and  however  meanly  he  may  have  treated 
the  latter,  he  never  failed  in  courtesy  or  civility  to 
his  consort.  Although  setting  a  vicious  example 
to  his  children,  he  loved  them  as  truly  as  if  he  had 
possessed  a  true  father's  heart,  and  therewith  a  wise 
father's  head ;  but  this  was  not  the  case,  and  that 
obnoxious  fellow  who  kept  a  "  Diary "  noted  down 
in  it,  of  his  princely  friend,  —  that  his  head  and  his 
heart  were  of  such  a  quality  that  nothing  could  ever 
be  possibly  made  of  them  or  of  the  owner  of  them. 
He  lost  much  money,  —  now  at  the  gaming-table, 
now  at  the  hands  of  extravagant  ladies,  —  and  he  lost 
much  time  in  laughing  gaily  in  verse  at  these,  or  in 
satirising  alike  the  triumphs  and  reverses  of  his 
brother  of  Cumberland.  The  prince  had  asked  for 
a  command,  then  for  a  regiment ;  both  had  been 
refused.  He  was  not  improperly  jealous  that  his 
brother  had  been  allowed  to  fight  side  by  side  with 
his  father  at  Dettingen  ;  and  Frederick  was  sorely 
stricken  by  the  wound  which  illustriously  bruised 
William.  When  the  heroes  returned,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  so  far  reconciled  with  his  sire  as  to  be 
able  to  repair  to  court  to  receive  them.  They  ac- 
knowledged all  such  greetings  from  others  by  a  word 
of  thanks,  but  the  welcome  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
was  unnoticed  even  by  a  look  of  gratification.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  the  royal  recruit  at  Dettingen  was 
made  commander-in-chief,  and  lost  the  battle  of 
Fontenoy,   his  brother  rejoiced  in  the  defeat;   and 


5o6       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

when  William  gained  what  he  could  not  well  lose, 
the  day  at  Culloden,  Frederick  flung  no  rose  to  make 
up  a  garland  for  the  '♦  butcher." 

The  corridor  at  Windsor  Castle  commemorates 
some  other  tastes  of  this  wayward  prince,  in  a  picture 
painted  by  an  artist  named  Philips,  and  representing 
the  princely  founder,  and  some  of  his  associates,  of 
the  "  Harry  the  Fifth  Club,"  or  "  the  Gang ; "  around 
their  leader,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  are  assembled 
Lord  Inchiquin,  Lord  Middleton,  Sir  Hugh  Smith- 
son,  General  Dilkes,  Mr.  Howe,  and  Mr.  B.  Boyle. 
Of  these  especial  favourites  of  the  prince,  Lord 
Inchiquin  was  perhaps  the  chief,  to  make  whom  his 
secretary  Frederick  ejected  Lord  Lyttelton.  In  the 
Gentlemen's  Mag^ajsine  for  September f  1854,  Mr.  John 
Gough  Nichols  describes  a  badge  which  had  belonged 
to  a  Mr.  Chamberlaine  who  was  blinded  in  some 
wild  frolic  with  the  celebrated  Marquis  of  Granby; 
and  this  badge,  Mr.  Nichols  is  inclined  to  believe, 
was  that  of  the  **Gang"  under  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
It  is  thus  described :  "  The  badge  is  oval  in  shape, 
and  its  size  is  about  that  of  a  large  hen's  egg.  Each 
side  is  painted  in  colours  enamelled  on  copper.  One 
size  is  allusive  to  the  exploits  of  the  highway,  the 
other  to  those  of  the  tavern.  On  the  former  is 
represented  at  top  a  right  hand  open,  with  the  fore- 
finger bent  down  to  perform  some  mystic  symbol. 
Below  is  a  distant  view  of  a  town,  which  has  two 
spires,  and  some  obeliscal  tower  like  that  of  a  glass- 
house ;  in  the  foreground  is  a  pair  of  stocks,  and  to 
the  right  a  gibbet,  with  the  iron  framework  used  for 
hanging  the  body  of  a  criminal  in  chains.  Above 
and  below  are  inscribed  the  words  —  *Jack   Gang 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  507 

Warily.'  On  the  other  side  are  three  hands  united, 
their  wrists  in  ruffles ;  and  around  them  this  legend, 
*  Charity,  Mirth,  and  Friendship  United.'  " 

The  mirth  was  probably  of  the  loudest  at  the  Gang 
meetings,  but  I  suspect  that  the  charity  and  friend- 
ship were  of  an  inferior  quality.  The  prince  at  least 
was  addicted  to  borrowing  money,  which  he  never 
intended  to  repay.  He  boasted  of  having  "  nicked  " 
Dodington,  his  very  familiar  friend,  out  of  several 
thousands,  and  he  borrowed  larger  sums  of  Sir 
Thomas  Bootle,  his  chancellor,  which  were  never 
returned.  This  latter  was  one  at  least  of  the  debts 
which  the  princess  should  have  acquitted  when  she  be- 
came a  widow,  at  which  period  she  possessed  not  only 
a  large  dower,  and  a  third  of  the  revenue  of  the  duchy 
of  Cornwall,  worth  four  thousand  a  year  more,  but 
she  had  reduced  her  household,  and  "lived  in  a 
privacy  that  exceeded  economy."  Walpole,  who  thus 
describes  her  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George 
III.,"  adds  that  "  her  passion  for  money  was  so  great 
that  she  obtained  an  additional  annuity  of  ;£i  0,000 
a  year  from  her  son,"  which  "was  given  under  pre- 
tence of  paying  the  late  prince's,  her  husband's,  debts. 
Whether  she  did  discharge  any  of  them  I  neither 
know  nor  deny.  Some,  I  have  heard,  remained. un- 
paid, not  only  at  her  death,  but  in  the  year  1788." 
The  sums  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  borrowed  from 
Sir  Thomas  Bootle  were  never  repaid  at  all.  When 
the  prince's  son  came  to  the  throne,  he  (George  III.) 
remembered  this  flagrant  case,  and  promised  to  make 
a  peer  of  Richard  Bootle  Wilbraham,  who  had  mar- 
ried Sir  Thomas's  niece,  Mary  Bootle.  The  son's 
promise  was   no  more  performed  than  the  father's 


5o8        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

debt  was  paid ;  but,  after  the  accession  of  the  next 
Prince  of  Wales  to  the  throne  (George  IV.),  the 
obligation  was  at  length  tardily  cancelled,  and  in 
1828  the  great-nephew  of  Frederick's  old  chancellor, 
Edward  Bootle  Wilbraham,  was  created  Baron  Skel- 
mersdale,  of  the  County  Palatine  of  Lancaster. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  hatred  of  the  queen  for 
Frederick  —  that  feeling  was  repaid  by  the  prince, 
by  hatred  less  open,  but  by  an  ostentatious  diso- 
bedience and  annoyance.  Through  his  friends,  he 
introduced  her  name  into  the  debates  which  arose  out 
of  the  mention  of  his  affairs,  in  a  manner  which, 
aiming  to  destroy  all  respect  for  her  in  the  popular 
mind,  moved  her  to  extreme  wrath.  In  minor  sorts 
of  annoyance  he  was  instructed  by  the  example  of 
Caroline  herself,  who  in  her  time,  as  Princess  of  Wales, 
had  lost  no  opportunity  to  accomplish  any  act  that 
could  give  umbrage  to  her  father-in-law.  Such  was 
her  patronage  of  Friend  the  physician,  who  had  de- 
fended the  Jacobite  Bishop  Atterbury,  when  the  latter 
was  accused  before  Parliament  of  the  crime  of  treason. 

Mother  and  son  bade  high  for  the  popular  voice, 
and,  to  gain  it,  condescended  to  many  actions  to 
which  they  would  not  otherwise  have  stooped.  They 
strove  as  hardly  to  excite  the  general  ill-will  against 
each  other.  She  charged  Frederick  with  being  ready 
and  willing  to  sell  his  right  of  succession  to  the  crown 
to  the  Pretender,  for  a  few  hundred  thousand  pounds. 
Bishop  Sherlock  once  ventured  to  ridicule  him  as 
a  blunderer,  and  the  queen  snubbed  the  prelate  for 
not  flinging  a  heavier  stone  at  the  head  of  the  son 
whom  she  affected  to  hold  unparalleled  for  crime  and 
meanness. 


FREDERICK  LOUIS  OF  HANOVER  509 

This  terrific  antagonism  was  carried  on  till  death 
visited  the  mother.  Even  in  the  death-struggle,  the 
expressed  anxiety  of  the  son  unnaturally  aroused  her. 
She  would  neither  pardon  nor  see  him,  nor  send  him 
her  blessing.  If  she  were  weak  enough,  she  inti- 
mated, to  grant  him  an  interview,  he  would  hypo- 
critically "blubber  like  a  calf,"  and  when  he  had 
left  he  would  laugh  at  her,  she  said,  for  her  weakness. 
In  this  she  was  not  in  error.  When  her  death  was 
near  at  hand,  the  spirits  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  rose 
high.  "We  shall  have  good  news  soon,"  he  was 
heard  to  say  at  Carlton  House,  his  then  town  resi- 
dence, "  she  can't  hold  out  much  longer ! "  She  died 
in  1737,  after  seeing  and  blessing  all  her  children 
who  were  in  England,  —  except  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

The  mother's  curse,  for  the  steady  refusal  of  a 
mother's  blessing  amounts  to  malediction,  was  quite 
sufficient  to  satisfy  more  than  the  merely  supersti- 
tious that  he  would  never  wear  the  crown,  or  he 
would,  with  it,  inherit  calamity.  Hitherto,  in  each 
family  that  had  succeeded  to  the  throne,  there  had 
been  one  Prince  of  Wales  who  had  never  ascended  it, 
but  from  this  greatness  not  one  had  been  debarred 
by  the  force  of  a  mother's  anathema.  Edward  of 
Worcester  had  exceeded  his  father  in  glory ;  his 
namesakes  of  Westminster,  of  the  Sanctuary,  and  of 
Middleham,  wore  the  mantle  of  "  King  Death,"  leav- 
ing mothers  to  weep  for  them  and  to  bless  their 
memories ;  around  Arthur  of  Winchester  circled  the 
general  love  as  well  as  that  of  the  nearest  and  dearest 
at  home  ;  and  thousand  of  hearts  were  wrung  when 
Henry  of  Stirling  was  borne  to  Westminster,  not  to 
be  crowned,  but  entombed.     It  was  different  when, 


5IO       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

in  course  of  time,  in  the  year,  namely,  175  i,  George 
II.  lay  ill,  and  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  with  irrev- 
erent eagerness,  was  arranging  the  course  to  be 
taken  now  that  he  was  about  to  be  king.  At  that 
very  time  Death  demanded  the  tribute  of  the  sacrifice 
of  the  heir  ere  he  should  possess  his  inheritance.  So 
it  is  satisfactory  that  the  customary  tribute  has  been 
paid  in  the  person  of  a  prince  who  loved  not  his 
mother,  nor  whom  his  mother  loved.  Death  smote 
him  just  as  he  was  at  the  height  of  unfilial  joy,  and 
busiest  in  unnatural,  silly,  but  ambitious  projects. 
From  the  time  of  his  mother's  death,  he  had  been  a 
thorn  in  the  side  of  the  father ;  a  thorn  now  to  be 
removed.  A  cold  caught  in  a  March  east  wind, 
foolishly  neglected,  led  to  pleurisy,  and  this,  still 
neglected,  led  to  death,  at  the  very  moment  when  his 
hand  was  outstretched  to  catch  the  sceptre  from  the 
grasp  of  a  father  who  survived  him  several  years. 
We  learn  this  much  from  that  friend  to  be  dreaded 
who  "  kept  a  diary." 

In  the  immediate  circle  of  his  home  there  were 
survivors  who  wept  sincerely  for  a  lost  husband  and 
father.  If  his  mother's  curse  impeded  his  attainment 
to  the  greatness  to  which  he  aspired,  it  did  not  follow 
him  to  the  sanctuary  of  his  hearth.  A  few  personal 
friends,  too,  mourned  over  a  lost  master  and  their 
lost  places  ;  and  amid  the  public  voices  that  were  set 
ringing  by  his  death,  the  pulpit  showered  satires 
on  his  corpse,  or  strewed  platitudes,  like  Newton's, 
on  his  bier ;  while  men,  like  his  own  brother,  sarcas- 
tically hoped  the  country  would  survive  his  loss,  and 
poetry  pursued  him  with  epigrams,  to  the  grave. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

GEORGE    WILLIAM    FREDERICK,    OF    NORFOLK    HOUSE 
Born  1738.     Died  (king)  1820 

This  third  Prince  of  Wales  of  the  house  of  Han- 
over was  the  eldest  son  of  a  family  consisting  of  five 
sons  and  four  daughters.  Of  the  latter,  the  "  Lady- 
Augusta  "  was  born  a  year  before  the  prince ;  and 
Caroline,  the  youngest,  was  bom  four  months  after 
the  decease  of  her  father. 

There  is  little  to  be  said  that  is  not  already  known 
of  the  early  life  of  this  prince,  who  was  born  on  the 
4th  June  (new  style),  1738,  in  Norfolk  House,  St. 
James's  Square,  during  the  period  when  Carlton 
House  was  being  prepared  for  the  residence  of  his 
parents.  Prematurely  born,  his  life  was  in  such  peril 
that  on  the  day  of  his  birth  he  was  baptised,  with 
no  more  ceremony  than  is  attached  to  the  ordinary 
private  administration  of  the  sacrament.  Three  weeks 
later,  a  more  public  solemnisation  followed,  but  still 
at  Norfolk  House,  where  the  healthy  wife  of  a 
gardener  was  for  a  time  the  most  important  person- 
age, next  to  the  delicate  baby  in  the  cradle.  The 
sensible  foster-mother  took  her  young  charge  to  bed 
with  her,  a  sort  of  vulgar  and  novel  familiarity  which 
was  vehemently  objected  to.     "  Nay,  then,"  said  the 


$12        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

good  woman,  "  you  may  nurse  the  boy  yourselves.*' 
They  wisely  allowed  her  to  have  her  way. 

At  this  birth,  the  laureate  got  upon  stilts,  and 
presented  his  best  thanks  to  Nature  that  she  had 
first  amused  herself  with  sketching  a  plan  of  a  girl 
(an  Augusta),  and  thereby  had  enabled  herself  to  now 
dare  and  **  complete  the  wondrous  man,"  George ! 
The  more  prosaic  corporation  of  London  went  up 
to  the  king  himself,  and  informed  him  of  what  he 
probably  very  shrewdly  suspected  —  that  the  happy 
event  was  one  of  the  effects  of  the  alliance  of  the 
child's  parents.  The  Bath  municipality  went  further 
still  in  social  science,  and  congratulated  the  father 
on  his  own  birth,  to  which,  as  they  justly,  but  super- 
fluously, observed,  they  owed  the  sight  of  the  royal 
presence  in  which  they  stood ! 

On  his  first  birthday  the  youthful  aristocracy,  from 
whom  his  mother  subsequently  guarded  him  with 
great  jealousy,  seemed  to  claim  him  for  their  own. 
A  deputation  of  five  dozen  of  them,  under  twelve 
years  of  age,  and  attired  as  Lilliputian  soldiers,  en- 
tered Norfolk  House,  drums  beating  and  colours 
flying,  elected  the  little  prince  for  their  colonel, 
kissed  his  hand,  and  then  marched  back  again. 

After  a  nursery  career,  the  young  prince,  at  six 
years  of  age,  was  consigned  to  the  care  of  men,  and 
Doctor  Ayscough  (afterward  Bishop  of  Bristol)  was 
appointed  tutor  to  the  Princes  George  and  Edward. 
Ayscough  congratulated  himself  on  the  taste  of  the 
former,  who  voluntarily  learned  hymns  by  heart,  out 
of  the  collection  of  the  dissenting  minister.  Doctor 
Doddridge.  The  preceptor  himself,  Ayscough,  was 
fonder  of  fun  than  of  teaching,  and  when  giving  a 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  513 

lesson  would  amuse  his  pupils,  and  their  royal  father 
too,  by  mimicking  the  style  and  manner  of  Doctor 
George,  than  head-master  at  Eton.  For  this  pre- 
ceptor Walpole  at  least  had  no  regard,  nor  for  some 
others;  he  writes  in  1749:  "When  Prince  George 
went  to  receive  the  riband  (of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter),  the  prince  (his  father)  carried  him  to  the 
closet-door,  where  the  Duke  of  Dorset  received  and 
carried  him.  Ayscough  or  Nugent,  or  some  of  the 
geniuses,  had  taught  him  *a  speech.'  The  child  be- 
gan it,  the  prince  cried  *  No !  no ! '  When  the  boy 
had  a  little  recovered  his  fright,  he  began  again,  but 
the  same  tremendous  scene  was  repeated,  and  the 
ovation  still-bom."  On  another  occasion  Walpole 
writes :  "  Mr.  Pelham  said  I  know  nothing  of  Doctor 
Ayscough.  Oh,  yes,  I  recollect  I  was  told  by  a  very 
worthy  man,  two  years  ago,  that  he  was  a  great 
rogue."  He  certainly  had  a  very  poor  idea  of  his 
duty.  At  eleven  years  of  age,  the  princess  dowager 
complained  that  her  son  read  English,  as  she  was 
told,  incorrectly.  Ayscough  said  it  mattered  little; 
the  prince  made  such  nice  Latin  verses ! 

Goupy  gave  him  lessons  in  water-colour  painting, 
and  Redman  instructed  him  in  the  use  of  the  small 
sword.  Quin,  as  I  have  before  stated,  "taught  the 
boy  to  speak,"  and  superintended  the  getting  up  of 
"  Cato,"  in  January,  1749,  when  Prince  George  played 
Portius,  ajid  a  boy  who  was  afterward  prime  minister 
enacted  Syphax,  namely,  the  son  of  Lord  North  —  the 
last  named  nobleman  being  the  prince's  governor. 
Further,  for  the  prince's  use.  Doctor  Freeman  wrote 
the  "  History  of  the  English  Tongue ; "  while,  for  his 
soul's  profit,  "plain  Parson  Hales,"  his  mother's  clerk 


514       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  the  closet,  accepted  the  task  of  instructing  him  in 
the  rudiments  of  religion. 

A  month  after  the  death  of  his  father,  Prince 
George  was  created  Prince  of  Wales.  He  occasion- 
ally left  his  widowed  mother,  to  reside  for  short 
periods  with  the  king.  At  this  time  the  Earl  of 
Harcourt  was  his  governor,  and  Hayter  (Bishop  of 
Norwich)  his  tutor.  The  sub-governor  was  Mr. 
Stone;  the  sub-preceptor,  Mr.  Scott.  Lord  Har- 
court and  Doctor  Hayter  were  accused  of  attempt- 
ing to  induce  the  prince  to  break  with  the  old  friends 
of  his  father,  and  even  to  render  himself  more  inde- 
pendent of  his  mother.  Intrigues  ensued,  during 
which  Stone  was  charged  with  instilling  Jacobitism 
into  his  pupil,  and  Scott  was  named  as  unfit  for  the 
post  he  occupied ;  but  these  gentlemen  came  out  of  the 
ordeal  triumphantly,  and  the  governor  and  preceptor 
retiring,  were  succeeded  by  the  Earl  of  Waldegrave 
and  Doctor  Thomas,  at  that  time  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough. 

Lord  Harcourt  was  a  less  efficient  governor  than 
Lord  North.  He  was  an  instrument  of  the  Pelhams, 
whose  object  was  to  rule  the  household  of  the  Prin- 
cess Dowager  of  Wales ;  and,  as  Walpole  remarks, 
was  "fit  to  cipher  where  Stone  was  to  figure." 
Doctor  Hayter  was  without  neither  sense  nor  good 
nature,  but  he  was  only  an  indifferent  tutor  to  the 
prince.  His  mother  accused  the  bishop  of  never 
teaching  her  son  anything ;  and  the  prelate  retorted 
by  affirming  that  he  was  never  permitted  to  teach 
him  anything.  Lord  Waldegrave  accepted  the  gov- 
ernorship with  reluctance,  but  he  was  well  fitted  for 
the  responsible  post,  which  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  515 

foolishly  thought  might  be  occupied  by  a  cipher,  but 
which  really  required  a  man  of  Waldegrave's  good 
sense  and  honourable  principles.  Of  Doctor  Thomas, 
Walpole  says,  "  I  know  nothing  of  him  ;  he  had  lain 
by  many  years,  after  having  read  prayers  to  the 
present  king  (George  II.),  which  his  Majesty  re- 
membered, and  two  years  ago  popped  him  into  a 
bishopric." 

"  I  don't  know  what  they  teach  them  "  (the  Prince 
of  Wales  and  his  favourite  brother,  Edward,  Duke  of 
York),  "but  I'm  afraid  not  much,"  said  the  dowager 
princess  to  Bubb  Dodington.  The  boys  and  pre- 
ceptors were  idle  at  Kew  and  Cliefden,  perhaps  they 
would  be  more  diligent  in  town.  Bubb  not  unwisely 
thought  that  the  princes  might  be  learning  something 
without  poring  over  books  —  knowledge  of  the  world, 
the  science  of  government,  and  the  conduct  of  public 
business.  The  mother's  testimony  to  the  character 
of  the  prince  was,  that  he  was  very  honest,  but  re- 
served and  childish,  —  even  after  he  was  "  in  his 
teens,"  —  shy,  good-natured,  cheerful,  yet  tinged  with 
gravity ;  slow,  yet  not  without  application.  In  learn- 
ing, she  thought  him  backward  —  and  she  was  right 
in  this,  but  only  by  chance,  for  she  was  incapable  of 
judging;  and  she  was  correct  in  asserting  what 
might  be  said  of  a  great  portion  of  his  life,  that 
those  most  intimate  with  him  knew  him  as  little  as  if 
they  had  never  seen  him.  The  mother  herself  did  not 
thoroughly  comprehend  him  —  but  a  good  mother's 
instincts  were  aroused  for  him,  and  she  kept  her  son 
from  all  companionship  with  the  vicious  and  ill-edu- 
cated aristocracy  of  her  time,  whom  she  properly 
held  in  healthy  horror.     The  aunt  of  the  Prince  of 


5i6        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Wales  (Amelia)  furnishes  evidence,  derived  from  the 
mother.  She  told  Walpole  that,  having  one  day, 
when  the  prince  was  a  boy,  done  something  to  please 
him,  the  princess  dowager  said  to  her,  "  Madam,  you 
are  very  good  to  my  children ;  but,  madam,  if  you 
was  to  lay  down  your  life  for  George,  George  would 
not  be  obliged  to  you."  ' 

Lord  Chesterfield,  who  was  then  training  his  only 
son,  not  to  abandon  vice,  but  to  be  a  gentleman  in 
the  practice  of  it,  pronounced  the  prince  to  be  "a 
most  hopeful  boy,  gentle,  and  good-natured,  with 
good  sound  sense."  His  royal  grandfather,  on  the 
other  hand,  declared  he  "was  good  for  nothing,  ex- 
cept to  read  the  Bible  to  his  mother,"  — a  good,  and 
homely,  and  not  unprincely  virtue.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  was,  undoubtedly,  of  a  less  vivacious  spirit 
than  his  brother  and  companion,  Edward  of  York, 
and  certainly  had,  through  life,  a  more  correct  sense 
of  propriety.  I  derive  from  a  note  of  Mrs.  Piozzi's, 
written  in  a  copy  of  "Wraxall's  Memoirs,"  which  she 
was  annotating,  one  evidence  of  the  correctness  of 
the  prince's  conduct,  and  which  evidence  reached 
Mrs.  Piozzi  through  a  cousin  attached  to  the  house- 
hold of  Prince  Frederick.  "  The  princess  was  sitting, 
one  day  of  her  early  widowhood,  pensive  and  melan- 
choly, her  two  oldest  sons  were  playing  about  the 
room.  *  Brother,'  said  the  second  boy  (Edward, 
Duke  of  York),  *when  you  and  I  are  men  grown, 
you  shall  be  married,  and  I  will  keep  a  mistress.' 
*Be  quiet,  Eddy,'  replied  the  Prince  of  Wales;  *we 
shall  have  anger  presently  for  your  nonsense.  There 
must  be  no  mistresses  at  all.'  *What  you  say?' 
*  "  Last  Journals  of  Horace  Walpole,"  vol.  i.  p.  in. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  517 

cries  old  (?)  Augusta;  *you  more  need  learn  your 
pronouns,  as  the  preceptor  bid  you  do.  Can  you  tell 
what  is  a  pronoun  ? '  *  Yes,  very  well,'  replied  Prince 
Edward;  *a  pronoun  is  to  a  noun  what  a  mistress 
is  to  a  wife,  —  a  substitute  and  a  representative.'" 
Whatever  parts  the  prince's  tutors  may  have  had, 
one  of  their  pupils,  at  least,  was  not  without  a  lively 
knowledge  of  the  world.  The  dowager  princess  had 
reason  to  be  afraid  of  the  manners  of  the  age  —  here 
was  one  of  her  caged  birds  with  the  audacity  of  a 
page,  and  an  insight  into  social  arrangements  that 
would  have  made  him  popular  with  a  whole  club 
of  Mohawks. 

Fuller  tells  us  what  young  Edward  VI.  had  to  say 
of  his  tutors,  namely,  that  "  Randolph,  the  German, 
spake  honestly ;  Sir  John  Cheke  talked  merrily ; 
Doctor  Coxe  solidly ;  and  Sir  Anthony  Cooke  weigh- 
ingly."  We  are  also  enabled,  through  Sir  George 
Rose's  diary,  to  know  the  impression  left  on  the 
mind  of  George  III.  by  the  tutors  and  governors 
appointed  over  him  in  his  princehood.  "His  Maj- 
esty told  me,"  says  Sir  George,  "that  most  serious 
inconvenience  had  arisen  from  disagreements  and 
intrigues  among  those  who  were  entrusted  with  the 
care  of  his  education  ;  mentioning  Doctor  Thomas, 
afterward  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  Mr.  George 
Scott,  afterward  a  commissioner  of  excise,  as  men 
of  unexceptionable  characters,  —  preceptor  and  sub- 
preceptor.  But  he  considered  Doctor  Hayter,  Bishop 
of  Norwich,  as  an  intriguing,  unworthy  man,  more 
fitted  to  be  a  Jesuit  than  an  English  bishop;  and 
as  influenced  in  his  conduct  by  the  disappointment 
he  had  met  with  in  failing  to  get  the  archbishopric 


5i8       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

of  Canterbury."  His  Majesty  added  that  "his  lord- 
ship was  the  author  of  the  gross  and  wicked  calumny 
on  George  Scott,  accusing  him,  a  man  of  the  purest 
mind  and  most  innocent  conduct,  of  having  attempted 
to  poison  his  wife.  Lord  Waldegrave  was  pronounced 
to  be  a  'depraved,  worthless  man,*  and  the  other 
well-intentioned,  but  wholly  unfit  for  the  situation  in 
which  he  was  placed."  In  this  former  opinion  the 
king  seems  to  have  had  an  incorrect  remembrance  of 
the  governors  of  the  prince. 

It  is  very  clear  that  the  mother  of  the  prince,  how- 
ever scantily  she  may  have  been  endowed  with  learn- 
ing, possessed  good  sense,  and  was  moved  by  healthy 
impulses.  In  her  son's  boyhood  she  remembered  the 
honest  letter  which  Edward  Walpole  had  sent  to  her 
husband,  when  the  latter  was  urging  him  to  oppose 
the  king  in  Parliament ;  Walpole  had  also  presented 
the  prince  with  a  valuable  Cremonean  violoncello, 
which,  after  his  death,  was  carefully  locked  up  by 
order  of  the  princess.  She  pointed  to  it  one  day 
when  the  youthful  Prince  of  Wales  stood  by,  and 
said :  "  George,  that  instrument  was  given  to  your 
father  by  a  man,  from  whom  I  will  show  you  a  letter. 
When  you  are  king,  get  him  about  you  if  you  can, 
you  cannot  have  an  honester  man." '  If  she  could 
only  have  followed  the  counsel  which  she  gave,  she 
would  have  better  enabled  her  son  to  profit  by  her 
advice,  and  would  have  saved  much  trouble  to  her 
son's  preceptors. 

It  must  be  said  for  the  preceptors  that  they  found 
an  ill-taught  pupil,  who,  when  he  came  into  public 
life,  only  saw  evil  example  rife  about  him.  An  anon- 
*  "  Last  Journals  of  Horace  Walpole." 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  519 

ymous  poet  has  described  the  court  in  which  the 
Prince  of  Wales  figured  in  his  seventeenth  year,  and 
at  which  Lady  Yarmouth,  the  mistress  of  his  grand- 
father, only  civilly  gave  precedence  to  the  prince's 
mother.  The  "  Grand  Presence  "  below  is,  of  course, 
King  George  II. 

«  See  the  Grand  Presence  in  the  circle  move ; 
Whilst  all  around  is  Joy,  and  Peace,  and  Love ; 
But  see  which  way  does  the  Grand  Presence  walk  I 
Say  next  with  whom  the  king  is  pleas'd  to  talk. 
Ha !  with  what  goddess-like  demeanour  seen, 
And  lowliness,  majestic  like  a  queen  ! 
To  meet  whose  smiles  the  godlike  hero  walks; 
And  first  with  Yarmouth  pleasantly  he  talks ; 
Who  yields,  with  grace  superior,  all  her  charms. 
The  dowager  princess  coming  to  his  arms. 
With  the  whole  majesty  of  Heav'n  she  moves. 
Pensive  in  thought.     She  smiles,  she  joys,  she  loves, 
She  loves  —  but  not  as  erst,  when  Frederick, 
Her  joy,  her  life,  her  all,  impress'd  her  lip, 
Sooth'd  her  with  blandishments,  would  fawn  and  play 
Around  her  neck,  or  on  her  bosom  lay. 
That  neck,  that  bosom,  jewels  still  adorn, 
But,  ah  !  his  hand,  the  living  jew'l,  is  gone. 
The  king  sustains  her  loss,  and  well  he  can : 
Heav'n  leaves  the  guardian,  when  it  takes  a  man." 

At  this  court,  where  the  train  of  vice  swept  before 
the  throne  more  proudly  than  that  of  virtue,  the 
young  Prince  of  Wales  is  thus  described  standing 
near  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  is  also 
thus  counselled  by  the  modest  and  nameless  versifier : 

"  Close  standing  by  his  side,  a  princely  boy 
Invites  my  eye,  and  fills  my  heart  with  joy : 


520       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Climbing  so  fast  to  manhood,  lo !  a  tree, 
A  blooming  tree,  sprung  from  a  twig,  I  see. 
The  modest  youth  adorn'd  with  many  a  grace, 
But  the  most  fair,  the  blush  upon  his  face ; 
Grow  on  in  ev'ry  virtue,  grow  and  shine, 
But  make  the  patriot  virtue  wholly  thine. 
Your  father,  grandsire,  uncle,  study  well ; 
The  court,  the  town,  the  country,  wisely  spell ; 
Learn  how,  before  you  are,  to  be  a  king : 
Beware  of  party.     Union  is  the  thing." 

However  defective  the  education  of  the  prince  may 
have  been  in  some  respects,  he  possessed  one  accom- 
plishment in  which  he  was  never  equalled  by  any  of 
his  own  children,  namely,  that  of  expressing  himself 
in  his  letters  in  pure  and  correct  English,  free  alike 
from  pretence  or  affectation. 

With  the  princess  dowager  and  her  friend  and 
counsellor,  scandal  adds,  her  particular  admirer,  the 
Earl  of  Bute,  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  supposed  to 
have  lived  in  as  great  seclusion  as  the  heir  of  a  sul- 
tan. For  some  time  this  was  indeed  the  case,  but 
emancipation  seems  to  have  come  sufficiently  early. 
When  the  prince  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  the  king 
granted  him  ;£40,ooo  a  year,  and  offered  him  an 
apartment  in  Kensington  and  St.  James's  Palaces. 
The  annuity  was  gratefully  accepted,  but  the  prince 
declined  the  apartment,  says  Bubb  Dodington,  "on 
account  of  the  mortification  it  would  be  to  his 
mother;  though,"  says  Bubb,  in  one  of  those  addi- 
tions which  render  diarists  so  dangerous  to  their 
familiar  friends  or  patrons,  "  it  is  well  known  that  he 
does  not  live  with  her  either  in  town  or  country." 
Thus   the   man  whom   Prince   Frederick   raised   to 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  521 

greatness,  was  the  first  who  put  on  record  that  his 
patron's  son  had  not  an  invariable  regard  for  truth ! 

At  all  events  there  is  nothing  to  surprise  us  in  the 
fact  that  the  prince,  with  all  the  respect  he  enter- 
tained for  his  mother,  avoided  residence  with  her; 
for  there,  too,  was  the  inevitable  Lord  Bute ;  who, 
long  before  he  held  any  ostensible  office  near  the 
prince,  was  wont  to  oppress  him  by  didactic  conver- 
sations on  the  "  Commentaries  "  of  Blackstone,  which 
that  learned  judge  sent  to  the  earl  in  manuscript. 
When  Bute  was  absent,  Bubb  Dodington  was  in  the 
company  of  the  dowager  princess,  the  intercourse 
between  the  latter  two  being  as  familiar,  he  says,  as 
that  of  brother  and  sister.  On  these  occasions  Bubb 
had  confidential  dialogues  with  the  princess,  from 
whom  he  learned  various  family  matters  which,  of 
course,  he  has  registered  in  his  diary.  Thence,  too, 
we  learn  how  the  prince  was  under  undue  subjection 
to  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  how  his 
brother  Edward  charged  him  with  lack  of  spirit  in 
submitting  to  it.  Altogether  there  seems  to  have 
existed  an  opinion  that  the  intellect  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  not  of  a  brilliant  order.  It  was,  however, 
sufficiently  useful  for  many  very  good  purposes,  and 
a  prince  of  eighteen  who  took  pleasure  and  reaped 
profit  from  perusing  Leland's  "View  of  Deistical 
Writers,"  must  at  that  age  have  been  endowed  with 
a  common-sense  intellect  adapted  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  some  important  objects. 

Of  his  presence  at  his  mother's  literary  evenings 
we  also  hear,  but  those  were  very  dull  affairs,  con- 
sisting in  the  reading  of  the  dreary  classical  tragedies 
then  in  vogue,  compared  with  which  any  theological 


522        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

"  view  "  must  have  been  refreshingly  lively.  In  naval 
affairs  he  took  as  much  interest  as  Henry  of  StirHng, 
had  a  strong  affection  for  the  service,  and  could  he 
have  been  at  the  head  of  it,  had  spirit  and  Latin 
enough,  I  sincerely  believe,  to  have  replied  to  any 
hostile  threat  against  the  English  fleet,  in  the  words 
once  forwarded  by  an  English  minister  to  M.  Guizot, 
when  the  latter  was  sufficiently  angry  and  unwise  to 
hint  a  similar  menace  : 


Maturate  fugam,  regi  haec  dicite  vestro,  — 
Non  illi  imperium  pelagi  saevumque  tridentem, 
Sed  mihi  sorte  datum." 


At  this  time,  Saville  House,  Leicester  Square,  was 
the  residence  of  the  young  prince,  around  whom 
gathered,  as  always  will  be  inclined  to  gather  round 
an  heir  with  imminent  expectations,  the  "  opposition," 
or  party  that  happened  to  be  out  of  place.  From 
them  he  learned  one  side  of  political  history.  Lord 
Bute  thought  it  would  be  as  well  for  him  were  he  to 
see  the  world,  and  accordingly  he  escorted  the  prince 
to  —  the  Isle  of  Bute.  This  was  the  longest  course 
of  travel  ever  undertaken  by  the  prince,  and  the  only 
foreign  land  he  ever  visited  was  that  little  island  off 
the  land  of  the  Gael ! 

These  matters,  however,  bore  with  them  symptoms 
of  manhood,  another  sign  of  which  is  offered  to  us 
in  the  fact  that  on  the  4th  of  February,  1760,  he  so 
far  appeared  prominent  in  Parliament  that  he  was 
named  on  the  commission  for  giving  the  royal  assent 
to  several  bills.  And  there  were  other  manifestations 
of  dawning  manhood  in  the  prince  whom  some  took, 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  523 

at  best,  for  a  Cymon.  If  report  may  be  relied  on, 
he  had  already  been  subdued  by  more  than  one 
Iphigenia,  but  there  is  doubtless  something  of  the 
romance  of  history  mixed  up  with  the  narrative. 
This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  story  of  Hannah 
Lightfoot,  the  young  Quakeress  of  St.  James's 
Market,  whose  charms  were  said  to  have  had  such 
potency  in  them  that  the  prince  privately  married 
his  beautiful  idol,  at  Curzon  Street  Chapel,  May- 
fair,  in  the  year  1759.  Where  the  prince  and  the 
fairy  kept  household  is  not  on  record,  but  the  ro- 
mance goes  circumstantially  into  details,  the  chief  of 
which  relate  to  the  alleged  offspring  of  this  supposed 
marriage,  to  the  awakening  of  the  prince  from  his 
dream,  and  to  the  subsequent  marriage  of  the  well- 
endowed  fairy  with  a  conveniently  found  swain, 
named  Axford,  who  tabernacled  with  the  prince's 
repudiated  love,  in  Harper  Street,  Red  Lion  Square. 
About  the  real  history,  however,  of  Hannah  Light- 
foot,  there  still  rests  an  impenetrable  mystery.  At 
the  time  of  her  disappearance  from  the  house  "  at  the 
comer  of  Market  Street,  St.  James's  Market,"  she 
was  the  guest  of  her  uncle  there,  named  Wheeler. 
The  tradition  still  existing  in  her  family  is,  that  she 
left  the  house  in  St.  James's  to  marry  a  "  Mr.  Ax- 
ford," a  perfect  stranger  to  all  but  herself,  at  Keith's 
Chapel,  in  May-fair ;  and  that  in  spite  of  every 
inquiry,  she  was  never  seen  nor  heard  of  afterward 
by  her  relatives.  Yet  it  is  known  that  she  sat  to 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  for  her  portrait ;  and  it  is  not 
unreasonably  supposed  that  this  must  have  been  by 
order  of  her  royal  lover.  This  fine  work  exists  at 
Knolle  Park,  Kent;  and  is  there  described  as  the 


524       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

portrait  of  "Mrs.  Axford."  May  not  Axford  have 
been  the  true  Beverley,  after  all  ?  One  would  cer- 
tainly like  to  know  what  became  of  this  shy,  but 
successful  young  Quakeress.  The  secret  must  be 
with  some  one,  however,  for  it  is  affirmed  that  the 
wife  of  one  of  the  Prytherchs  of  Abergole  is  her 
granddaughter.' 

There  is  more  truth,  and  more  of  the  true  romantic 
spirit  which  may  agree  with  truth,  in  the  story  of 
the  second  Iphigenia  of  the  princely  Cymon.  As  the 
latter  used  to  ride  between  Kew  and  Leicester 
Square,  his  notice  was  attracted,  one  sweet  June-tide, 
by  the  appearance  of  a  young  girl  making  hay,  in  one 
of  the  fields  which  then  bordered  Kensington.  Never 
had  such  a  mortal  haymaker,  shedding  fragrance  over 
the  fragrant  heap  she  made,  been  seen  on  earth 
before.  The  young  prince  was  enchanted,  and  there 
was  good  reason,  for  Walpole  affirms  that  the  young 
lady  was  beautiful  beyond  conception,  and  that  her 
loveliness  and  expression  were  above  the  reach  of 
artists  to  emulate.  This  peerless  fair  one  was  Lady 
Sarah  Lennox,  whose  mother,  the  Duchess  of  Rich- 
mond, was  more  beautiful  than  even  Lady  Sarah,  or 
her  other  two  daughters,  one  of  whom  became  the 
mother  of  Charles  Fox,  the  other,  of  the  unfortunate 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald.  The  lady  who  had  touched 
the  prince's  heart  so  nearly  was  about  seven  years  his 
junior,  but  the  legend  will  have  it  that  he  made  her  an 
offer  of  marriage,  which  she  accepted.  It  must  have 
been  a  short-lived,  however  brilliant  a  romance,  for 
when  Lady  Sarah  appeared  at  her  royal  lover's  wed- 
ding, when  she  was  only  in  her  eighteenth  year,  it  was 

^  Notes  and  Queries^  vol.  i.,  1856,  p.  322. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  525 

not  as  bride,  but  as  bride  smaid  I  She  found  speedy  con- 
solation, too,  in  marrying  Sir  T.  C.  Bunbury,  and  sub- 
sequently the  Hon.  George  Napier.  The  eldest  child 
of  this  marriage  was  the  gallant  soldier,  Sir  Charles 
Napier,  whose  "very  existence"  is  described  by  his 
brother,  Sir  William,  as  being  an  "offence  to  royal 
pride."  Thus  the  Napiers  seemed  to  have  held  that 
the  lady  and  not  the  prince  was  to  blame.  An  antag- 
onism, almost  comical,  was  established  on  the  Napier 
side.  When  the  two  respective  eldest  sons  of  the 
two  marriages  once  met  at  court,  the  son  of  Lady 
Sarah's  old  lover  (George  Augustus,  Prince  of  Wales) 
"took  the  liberty"  of  calling  Lady  Sarah's  son, 
"Charles!"  A  graceful  condescension  which  the 
latter  young  man,  then  nineteen,  notified  to  his 
mother  with  an  ungenerous,  "Marry,  come  up,  my 
dirty  cousin." 

It  has  been  often  said  by  those  who  wished  to 
damage  the  character  of  Charles  Fox,  that  he  em- 
ployed very  active  influence  in  the  love  passages 
which  passed  between  Lady  Sarah  Lennox  and  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  about  the  year  1 760 ;  and  that  this 
influence  turned  to  induce  the  prince  to  marry  that 
fair  cousin  of  young  Charles.  When,  however,  it  is 
remembered  that  in  the  year  above  named  Charles 
Fox  was  only  eleven  years  of  age,  it  is  not  likely, 
even  if  he  were  in  the  secret  of  the  existence  of  the 
love,  that  he  was  in  the  confidence  of  the  lovers,  — 
or  that  he  could  have  exercised  any  influence  at  all 
in  an  affair  of  such  delicacy,  —  and  yet  his  subse- 
quent opposition  to  the  king's  government  is  some- 
times said  to  have  owed  its  origin  to  the  non-fulfilment 
of  this  marriage. 


526        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

In  1760,  George  II.  died,  and,  sudden  as  was  the 
death  of  that  king,  some  previous  arrangement  seems 
to  have  been  made,  in  order  that,  whenever  it  might 
take  place,  the  Prince  of  Wales  should  be  the  first  to 
be  informed  of  that  very  important  event,  —  both  to 
outgoing  king,  and  incoming  prince.  The  former 
died  at  Kensington.  The  prince  was  then  at  Kew, 
and  he  thus  gives  his  own  account  of  the  conveyance 
of  a  message,  about  which  there  seems  to  have  been 
much  unnecessary  mystery.  Sir  George  Rose  thus 
reports  it  in  his  diary  : 

"His  Majesty  referred  to  a  conversation  he  had 
held  with  me  respecting  Lord  Bute  ;  saying  he  would 
now  tell  me  what  he  had  then  omitted  to  do.  .  .  . 
That  on  the  day  of  the  late  king's  demise,  he  was 
going  from  Kew  to  his  house  in  London,  to  give 
some  directions  about  an  organ  he  had  there  being 
fitted  in  a  room  he  had  prepared  for  it.  When  near 
Kew  bridge,  he  met  a  person  he  did  not  know,  who 
rode  up  to  him  and  said  he  had  something  to  say  to 
him,  and  took  out  of  his  pocket  a  piece  of  very  coarse 
white-brown  paper,  with  the  name  of  Schrieder  wrote 
upon  it,  and  nothing  more,  which  the  man  said  was 
given  to  him  merely  to  obtain  credence  with  his 
Royal  Highness ;  and  then  went  on  to  say  that  the 
king  was  taken  suddenly  ill,  and  that  appearances 
were  very  alarming.  He  ordered  him  to  say  nothing 
to  any  one,  but  to  ride  on  quietly.  The  determina- 
tion his  Majesty  instantly  took  was  to  return  to  Kew, 
to  colour  which  he  observed  to  his  attendants  that 
his  horse  went  lame ;  and  although  his  groom  assured 
him  to  the  contrary,  he  went  back  directly,  and  im- 
mediately repaired  to  the  Princess  of  Wales,  whose 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  527 

unremitting  and  careful  attention  he  spoke  feelingly 
of,  to  communicate  to  her  what  had  occurred ;  in 
doing  which  he  enjoined  her  in  the  warmest  manner 
to  say  nothing  on  the  subject  to  Lord  Bute,  lest  he 
should  entertain  some  notion  of  endeavouring  to  be 
placed  in  a  poUtical  situation ;  of  which,  however, 
the  princess  dowager  assured  him  there  was  no  dan- 
ger. The  king,  not  satisfied  with  that  assurance, 
repeated  the  injunction,  and  obtained  from  her  Royal 
Highness  a  positive  promise  of  a  compliance  with  it, 
adding,  that  if  she  should  be  mistaken,  it  would 
entirely  alter  her  opinion  of  his  lordship.  That  after 
leaving  his  mother,  and  before  reaching  his  own 
house,  he  met  a  messenger  with  a  letter  from  the 
Princess  Amelia,  directed  *To  his  Majesty,'  which 
led  to  his  being  certain  of  the  event  that  had  hap- 
pened. Her  Royal  Highness,  in  it,  requested  him  to 
come  directly  to  Kensington ;  the  impropriety  of 
which  he  was  so  sensible  of,  that,  after  again  waiting 
on  his  mother,  he  went  straight  to  his  own  house  in 
London."  That  was  to  Carlton  House,  his  mother's 
residence,  where  he  met  his  ministers,  and  revised 
his  first  speech  to  the  nation,  putting  in  it  those 
famous  words,  —  **  Born  and  educated  in  this  country, 
I  glory  in  the  name  of  Briton,"  —  words  which, 
brightly  gilded,  headed  the  printed  address,  which 
was  framed,  glazed,  and  suspended  in  many  a  house 
at  that  period,  and  which  is  still  to  be  found,  some- 
thing the  worse  for  wear,  the  gilding  tarnished,  and 
the  printing  soiled,  hanging  against  the  walls  of  some 
remote  cottage,  —  a  tradition  and  a  "  hatchment "  of 
the  buried  past. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

GEORGE    AUGUSTUS    FREDERICK    OF    ST.    JAMES'S 
Bom  1762.    Died  (king)  1830 

Chronologically,  the  life  of  the  eldest  son  of 
George  III.  may  be  thus  registered. 

He  was  bom  at  St.  James's,  on  the  12th  of 
August,  1762,  and  was  only  a  few  days  old  when  he 
was  created  Prince  of  Wales. 

In  1770,  he  passed  from  the  nursery  to  the  guard- 
ianship of  men  ;  the  Earl  of  Holdernesse,  and  the 
reverend  Mr.  Markham,  and  Cyril  Jackson,  being  his 
governor,  preceptor,  and  sub-preceptor. 

In  1772,  he  is  reported  to  have  manifested  his  early 
opposition  to  his  father,  by  shouting  within  his  hear- 
ing the  obnoxious  cry  of  "Wilkes  and  45  for  ever!  " 

Two  years  later  he  and  his  brother,  the  Duke  of 
York,  received  some  instructions  in  farming,  on  which 
they  practically  entered,  with  the  success  of  ama- 
teurs ;  and  in  1776,  the  prince  passed  from  the 
superintending  care  of  the  trio  of  gentlemen  named 
above,  —  to  that  of  Lord  Bruce,  Bishop  Hurd,  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Arnold.  The  noble  lord,  however, 
speedily  made  way  for  the  Duke  of  Montague,  as 
governor. 

In  his  eighteenth  year  he  demonstrated  the  utility 
of  the  restrictive  system  under  which  he  was  kept  by 

528 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  529 

parents  and  tutors,  by  alluring  Perdita  Robinson  from 
the  stage,  and  by  making  his  first  and  deep  plunge 
into  indiscretion  and  extravagance,  by  entering  into 
a  bond  to  pay  her  ;£20,ooo  when  he  came  of  age. 

When  that  time  came,  the  prince  and  the  lady 
were  no  longer  friends,  and  the  bond  was  redeemed 
for  an  annuity  of  ^£500  per  annum,  which  was  not 
paid  many  years.  This  was  not  for  want  of  means, 
seeing  that  when  he  reached  his  majority,  the  people, 
by  their  representatives,  granted  him  ^^  100, 000  to 
form  a  household,  and  half  that  sum,  annually,  to 
support  it.  He  took  his  seat  among  the  peers,  com- 
menced his  political  career  as  a  Tory,  but  soon 
fell  into  dissipation,  extreme  and  costly  follies  and 
fopperies,  and  the  hands  of  the  Whigs,  who  seized 
on  him  as  a  pupil,  for  the  good  of  their  country,  the 
welfare  of  the  heir  apparent,  and  no  especial  purpose, 
good  or  bad,  in  which  they  were  themselves  inter- 
ested !  So  at  least  they  said,  —  but  with  all  natural 
inclination  for  Whigs  and  gentlemen,  I  do  not  give 
more  than  provisional  acceptance  to  such  assertions. 

They  must,  at  all  events,  have  speedily  become 
ashamed  of  their  pupil,  for  he  acted  neither  as  true 
Whig,  nor  honest  gentleman.  As  for  his  Whiggism, 
I  believe  it  was  very  much  like  Charles  the  Second's 
Protestantism,  which  was  a  cloak  serving  to  hide  a 
genuine  Roman  Catholic.  So  did  the  Prince  of 
Wales's  Whiggery  cover  a  Tory,  at  heart ;  when  he 
could  safely  profess  the  latter  creed,  he  took  to  it, 
and  kept  it  through  life,  as  honestly  as  it  was  in  his 
power  to  keep  to  anything. 

Between  the  two,  he  very  much  resembled  him- 
self between  Mrs.  Crouch  the  actress  and  Mrs.  Fitz- 


530       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

herbert.  He  married  the  latter  fascinating  widow, 
at  the  risk  of  bringing  about  a  war  of  succession,  and 
he  instructed  his  own  familiar  friend,  Charles  Fox,  to 
deny  the  marriage  in  the  face  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. He  had  sworn  to  be  faithful  to  his  wife,  but 
while  lavishing  a  world  of  wealth  upon  her  in  the 
form  of  a  splendid  establishment,  the  expenses  of 
which  he  promised  to  pay,  he  was  on  such  friendly 
terms  with  the  actress  that  he  did  not  think  ;£  1,400 
per  annum  too  much  to  pay,  or  engage  to  pay,  for 
the  enjoyment  of  them. 

At  this  time,  young,  handsome,  and  courteous,  with 
means  and  appliances  about  him  to  become  an  ac- 
complished, a  patriotic,  and  an  exemplary  prince,  he 
was  bankrupt  in  estate  and  character.  Prodigal  as  the 
people  had  been  to  him,  through  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, he  abused  their  liberality,  recklessly  exceeded 
his  income,  anticipated  that  of  years  to  come,  and  amid 
the  ruin  which  he  had  gaily  brought  upon  himself, 
standing  impudently  penitent,  asking  his  father  and 
asking  the  people  to  rescue  him  —  who  would  not 
rescue  himself. 

"Impudently  penitent,'*  because  he  played  out  a 
short  farce  of  reduction  and  economy,  which  the 
patient  public  took  for  fixed  and  shining  morality; 
and,  moved  by  the  example  of  his  softened  sire,  who 
consented  to  allow  his  son  an  additional  ;£  10,000  a 
year  out  of  the  Civil  List,  they  flung  into  his  lap  the 
splendid  donation  of  ;£  160,000,  wherewith  to  satisfy 
his  creditors,  and  an  additional  ;£20,ooo  for  himself, 
under  the  name  of  repairs  for  Carlton  House. 

At  the  age  of  six  and  twenty,  he  came  for  the  first 
time  within  reach  almost  of  the  sceptre,  as  regent. 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  531 

In  1788,  constitutional  disease,  public  calamity, 
private  anxieties,  and  a  life  of  constant  irritation, 
either  from  intractable  ministers  who  would  ride  over 
him,  and  not  be  ridden  over  by  him,  or  from  his  son, 
whose  ingratitude  was  worse  than  the  serpent's  tooth, 
as  the  sage  calls  it,  the  king,  with  the  weight  of  only 
half  a  century  on  his  shoulders,  but  with  the  intolera- 
ble burden  I  have  indicated  on  his  mind,  made  first, 
but  not  yet  total,  shipwreck  of  his  reason,  and  then 
it  was  proposed  that  George  Augustus  Frederick 
should  be  regent. 

When  this  crisis  of  his  life  was  reached,  the 
Whigs,  ordinarily  anxious  to  preserve,  or  make  reserve 
of,  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  place  healthy  bonds 
on  those  in  possession  of  power,  asserted  that,  the 
king  being  mentally  dead,  the  next  heir  naturally 
succeeded  to  all  but  the  title  of  his  predecessor's 
greatness,  without  restriction,  and  as  a  matter  of 
course.  The  Tories,  on  the  other  hand,  usually 
jealous  of  too  much  interfering  with  the  potentiality 
of  those  whom  they  acknowledge  for  sovereign,  or 
vice-sovereign,  argued  in  favour  of  submission  of  the 
matter  to  public  opinion,  and  of  a  regency  under 
such  restraints  as  to  be  under  the  control  of  the 
people's  representatives.  The  bill  with  the  restric- 
tions in  question  was  going  through  the  House,  when, 
on  the  1 2th  of  February,  1789,  the  whole  matter  was 
overturned  by  the  unexpected  recovery  of  the  king. 

Therewith,  the  prince,  under  the  cold  shade  of  his 
father's  inveterate  displeasure,  turned  away  from 
politics,  took  to  philandering,  to  horse-racing,  and  then 
abandoning  that,  to  attending  prize-fights ;  and  then, 
in  better  taste,  leaving  them    with   a   denunciation 


532        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

against  them,  to  the  exhibition  of  much  fickleness 
and  other  follies,  and  to  the  wooing  of  many  ladies, 
who  received  the  homage  with  more  or  less  alacrity, 
while  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  kept  a  state  rarely  broken  in 
upon  by  her  inconstant  husband  in  her  compact  little 
palace  in  Park  Lane. 

In  1795  was  carried  into  fatal  completion  that 
unhappy  project  of  marriage  with  his  lively  cousin, 
Caroline  of  Brunswick.  It  was  not  that  he  loved, 
even  on  report,  the  lady  he  had  never  seen.  He  was 
hopelessly  embarrassed  again  by  debt,  and  the  mar- 
riage was  proposed  as  the  grateful  service  to  be 
performed  in  return  for  the  payment  of  his  debts. 
And  hither  came,  accordingly,  that  then  lovely  and 
never  very  clean  lady,  her  young  heart  occupied  with 
the  memory  of  a  lover,  to  accept  as  her  husband 
a  man  who  was  already  married,  but  who  did  not 
scruple  to  marry  again,  standing  at  the  altar  and 
perjuring  himself  under  the  strong  tonics  of  brandy, 
hatred  of  his  bride,  and,  let  us  hope,  some  disgust  at 
himself. 

That  ill-matched  pair  were  wedded  on  the  8th 
April,  1795.  Parliament  again  behaved  munificently 
on  the  occasion,  and  the  married  couple  had  every 
means  of  happiness  within  their  power  save  one ; 
wanting  which,  felicity  is  unattainable.  They  had 
no  esteem  each  for  the  other ;  hence  came  separation 
within  a  year,  shortly  after  the  birth  of  the  Princess 
Charlotte  of  Wales ;  and  thence  ensued  scandals, 
and  misery,  and  guiltiness,  such  as  threatened  to 
make  the  popular  heart  sick  of  the  name  of  royalty, 
uneasy  under  the  present  condition  of  things,  and 
nearly  hopeless  as  regarded  the  future. 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  533 

There  was  a  moment  when  the  prince  had  an 
opportunity  to  recover  the  good-will  and  respect  of 
the  people ;  and,  to  do  him  justice,  he  did  not  neglect 
to  avail,  or,  rather,  to  try  to  avail  himself  of  it.  When 
we  were  threatened  by  invasion,  in  the  early  part  of 
this  century,  he  sought  eagerly,  and  no  doubt  sin- 
cerely, to  be  permitted  to  have  a  foremost  place 
among  the  martial  defenders  of  the  country.  His 
creditable  effort  was  treated  with  cruel  scorn,  and, 
while  his  incapable  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  was 
entrusted  with  a  supreme  command,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  contemptuously  thrust  back  into  orna- 
mental uselessness,  and  with  such  insulting  circum- 
stances, as  to  lead  the  vigilant  public  to  beUeve  that 
he  was  personally  the  coward  which  his  vindictive 
father  most  unjustifiably  declared  him  to  be. 

To  pursue  the  chronological  outline  of  this  life, 
there  remains  to  be  recorded  that,  in  1804,  when  he 
claimed  sole  power  over  the  education  of  his  daughter, 
the  king  preserved  the  rights  of  the  mother  of  the 
princess.  In  1805,  the  coalition  of  Grenville  and 
Fox  had  the  support  of  the  prince.  Then  followed 
the  indiscretions  of  his  wife,  the  calumnies  which 
sprung  from  them,  and  her  triumphant  issue,  marked 
by  her  reappearance  at  court ;  where,  in  1807,  the  ill- 
starred  couple  met  for  the  last  time,  exchanging  a 
few  cold,  civil  words.  The  final  derangement  of  the 
"  old  king  "  led  to  Perceval's  Regency  Bill,  with  the 
limitations  of  Pitt's  previous  measure  —  to  continue 
only  for  a  year.  This  arrangement  enabled  the 
prince  to  start  unshackled  from  the  year  181 2.  His 
new  career  opened  with  war  abroad  and  awful  suffer- 
ing at  home,  where  the  expenditure  greatly  exceeded 


534       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

the  income.  But  the  refusal  of  the  prince  to  receive, 
at  such  a  period,  an  increase  of  revenue,  gained  him 
some  popularity,  and  his  desertion  of  his  Whig  friends 
hardly  affected  this  temporary  regard  on  the  part  of 
the  people. 

The  year  1814  was  a  real  year  of  jubilee.  The 
war  was  brought  to  a  glorious  close ;  emperors  and 
kings  came  over  here  as  guests;  and,  though  the 
nation  was  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  the  prince's 
wife  had  retired  to  the  Continent,  and  to  her  husband 
there  came  a  consequent  joy  free  from  all  alloy. 
Waterloo  hardly  raised  it  higher.  Algiers,  in  18 16, 
gave  a  fresh  lustre  to  his  regency ;  but  at  this  time 
his  popularity  was  altogether  extinguished ;  of  which 
circumstance  he  had  an  unpleasant  assurance  on  being 
fired  at  in  18 17,  as  he  was  passing  in  his  carriage, 
accompanied  by  Lord  James  Murray,  the  father  of 
the  present  Duke  of  Athol.  In  that  same  year,  died 
his  daughter.  The  succeeding  year  was  marked  by 
the  death  of  his  mother.  Queen  Charlotte ;  an  event 
which  seems  to  have  cost  him  as  much  sorrow  as 
that  great  calamity  which  the  nation  suffered  in  the 
death  of  the  Princess  Charlotte  —  "Fair  Rose  of 
England,"  as  some  poets,  and  a  vast  number  of  the 
sincere  and  common  people,  called  her.  The  Man- 
chester Massacre,  in  18 19,  and  the  Cato  Street  Con- 
spiracy, in  1820,  indicate  sufficiently  the  feeling  of 
the  authorities  and  the  party  by  which  they  were 
resisted.  It  was  in  the  latter  year,  amid  gloom,  dis- 
content, and  exasperation,  that  George  Augustus 
Frederick  became  king. 

"  It  is  the  fashion,"  says  Mr.  Thackeray,  in  "  The 
Newcomes,"  "to  run  down  George  IV."     The  kindli- 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  535 

ness  of  feeling  evinced  in  this  phrase  was  made,  even 
by  the  eminent  man  who  uttered  it,  to  yield  to  the 
lively  sense  of  justice  subsequently  manifested  in  the 
lectures  on  the  Georges.  It  is  a  "fashion  to  run 
down"  this  prince;  but  he  himself  afforded  the 
opportunity,  and  any  man  seizing  it,  or  finding  himself 
unable  to  avoid  it,  may  experience  comfort  —  a  strange 
sort  of  comfort  indeed  —  in  reflecting  that  no  man 
has  ever  spoken  of  the  prince  in  such  withering  terms 
as  have  been  applied  to  him  by  his  own  father. 

And  yet  his  own  father  exaggerated  his  faults,  or, 
if  that  were  impossible,  was  partly  accountable  for 
them ;  refusing  subsequently  to  make  allowance  for 
errors  which  were  in  some  degree  the  result  of 
inefficient,  however  well-intentioned,  training. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  too,  that  this  prince  espe- 
cially had  one  great  disadvantage  wherewith  to  con- 
tend, when  his  way  of  life  was  being  judged  of,  and 
was  very  properly  condemned.  Happy,  ordinary 
men  live,  according  to  their  good  or  bad  principles, 
within  a  restricted  circle,  and  are  answerable  for 
their  actions  only  toward  God.  But  here  was  a  prince 
—  every  hour  of  whose  life  was  watched,  every  action 
noted,  every  word  and  deed  witnessed,  registered, 
and  variously  represented.  He  was  not  like  a  Japa- 
nese prince,  who  has  a  social  spy  eternally  at  his 
elbow  —  he  had  a  million,  the  entire  public;  and, 
except  by  the  few  miscalled  friends  who  lured  him,  — 
nothing  loth,  but  lured  him,  nevertheless,  into  acts 
which  have  stamped  a  disgraceful  fame  upon  his 
name,  —  there  was  maintained  against  him  a  continual 
fire  of  sarcasm  and  reproof. 

The  most  blameless  man  that  ever  lived  before  his 


536        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

fellow  men  could  not  stand  the  ordeal  which  this 
Prince  of  Wales  was  compelled  to  undergo.  In  every 
circumstance  of  his  life  he  was  "  found  out ; "  for 
him  there  was  no  privacy;  the  universal  eye  was 
for  ever  upon  him,  the  universal  tongue  assumed  the 
"fashion"  of  wagging  against  him.  At  every  break- 
fast-table there  was  a  report  of  the  night-doings  of 
the  prince ;  at  every  supper-table  there  was  a  review 
of  his  day's  history.  Men  not  only  dragged  him 
forth  to  hourly  judgment,  stripped  him,  exposed 
him,  deserted  him,  and  pronounced  him  rotten,  but 
in  letters  and  diaries  they  have  transmitted  him, 
naked,  all  his  blemishes  apparent,  anatomised  and 
condemned,  down  to  everlasting  posterity.  In  his 
earlier  days,  misled  and  misrepresented,  he  became 
reckless,  and  therewith  plunged  into  an  abyss  from 
which,  though  he  arose,  it  was  only  to  remain  polluted 
for  ever.  His  lack  of  filial  duty,  his  heedless 
gambling,  his  low  pursuits,  the  meannesses  to  which 
these  compelled  him,  his  faithlessness  to  woman,  his 
betrayal  of  friends,  and  his  beastly  addiction  to  drink- 
ing, —  all  these  have  inflicted  pain  on  the  good  and 
true  men  who,  recording  them,  could  not  but  condemn 
them ;  and  have  afforded  a  dear  delight  to  men  a 
thousand  times  worse  than  the  prince  they  affected 
to  scorn ;  who  reviled  him  for  the  sins  in  which  they 
indulged,  but  in  the  practice  of  which  they  were  not 
followed  —  day  and  night,  unceasingly,  by  eyes  eager 
to  discover,  tongues  ready  to  report,  and  pens  pointed 
for  records  to  render  them  infamous  for  ever. 

I  am  unwilling,  therefore,  to  follow  the  "fashion  " 
of  "  running  down  '*  this  Prince  of  Wales ;  and,  fail- 
ing altogether  in  the  space  necessary  to  make  fair 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  537 

record  of  his  history,  with  its  lights  as  well  as  shades, 
—  and  it  certainly  had  both,  —  I  will  confine  myself 
to  noticing  some  salient  points  in  his  character ;  leav- 
ing him,  then,  to  what  every  human  being  greatly 
needs,  —  charity  of  construction  when  condemning 
him  absolutely,  or  when  comparing  him  by  the  bet- 
ter standards  which  now  regulate  the  lives  of  princes 
and  their  fellow  men. 

George  Augustus  Frederick  has  been  severely  cen- 
sured for  the  extravagance  of  his  tastes.  This  taste 
and  attending  extravagance  were  gently  instilled  into 
him  in  his  infancy.  At  five  years  old  he  was  made 
to  hold  the  most  gorgeous  juvenile  drawing-room  that 
England  at  least  had  ever  seen.  The  little  god  was 
there  supreme,  and  better  means  could  not  have  been 
found  to  render  him  drunk  with  vanity.  The  "  com- 
mon people  "  made  practical  remark  on  this  splendid 
mistake  by  driving  a  hearse  into  the  courtyard  at 
St.  James's,  and  saluting  the  glittering  drama  and 
its  sparkling  actors  by  shouts  of  execration. 

Consigned  with  his  brother  to  successive  tutors, 
the  king  gave  free  license  to  these  to  flog  his  boys  if 
they  deserved  it.  The  prince  and  his  brother  Fred- 
erick have  been  alike  stigmatised  as  early' addicted  to 
rebellion,  because  they  once  manfully  united  and 
flogged  their  tutor.  Accepting  this  as  a  fact,  I  have 
always  considered  it  creditable  to  their  spirit  and 
their  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things.  A  blow  is  the 
most  offensive  outrage  that  can  be  inflicted  on  a 
gentleman ;  and  here  were  two  royal  lads  who  knew 
that  well,  who  were  menaced  with  such  outrage  in 
the  most  degrading  way  in  which  it  could  be  levelled 
at   them.      Would   that   they   had   always   been   as 


538        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

rightly  prompted,  and  ever  as  careful  of  preserving 
their  self -dignity,  and  of  avenging  it  when  insulted. 

It  is  a  common  thing  for  improvident  people  of  all 
classes  to  remark  with  some  self-complacency  that,  if 
they  are  ruining  themselves,  they,  at  all  events,  are  only 
their  own  enemies ;  no  one  else,  they  think,  is  injured 
by  their  improvidence.  This  is  a  fatal  mistake ;  and 
it  is  fatally  illustrated  by  a  circumstance  connected 
with  the  extravagance  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and, 
in  this  case,  of  his  two  next  brothers. 

When  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  on  a  visit  to  this 
country,  an  unpleasant  report  got  abroad  to  the  effect 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  stooped  to  borrow 
money  of  the  duke,  for  which  the  former  had  given 
bonds,  his  brothers  uniting  with  him  in  accepting  cer- 
tain liabilities.  There  was  some  delicate  questioning 
in  Parliament,  and  some  delicately  evasive  answering 
on  this  point.  At  length  Fox  himself  repaired  to 
his  royal  pupil,  and  asked  him  directly  if  he  had  ever 
entered  into  such  bonds  to  a  foreign  prince.  The 
pupil  of  Fox  swore  that  he  was  guiltless  of  such  act, 
whereupon  Fox  convicted  him  of  lying  by  taking  one 
of  the  bonds,  bearing  the  signature  of  the  prince,  from 
his  pocket  1  This  was  bad  enough,  but  still  worse 
results  arose  out  of  this  act  of  degrading  folly.  The 
other  bonds  were  negotiated  in  France.  They  were 
there  taken  up,  and  circulated  at  a  heavy  discount. 
They  had  been  thus  running  on  for  three  years  when 
a  fermier  gM^ral  refused  to  receive  them  at  par. 
The  holders  of  them  were  then  repubUcans,  and  these 
immediately  denounced  this  particular  fermier  and 
the  brother  financiers  of  his  class  as  aristocrats  of 
the  most  villainous  quality.     Thirty-one  of  that  once 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  539 

money-making  tribe  were  immediately  thrown  into 
prison ;  among  them  was  Lavoisier,  the  celebrated 
chemist ;  and  in  May,  1 794,  the  whole  thirty-one 
suffered  death  under  the  guillotine.'  Thus  some  jol- 
lity in  Pall  Mall,  a  little  deep  gambling,  hard  drinking, 
and  friendly  borrowing  and  lending  of  money  led  to 
this  terrible  catastrophe  on  the  Place  de  la  Revolu- 
tion. When  the  bonds  were  signed,  the  princes 
probably  thought  they  were  only  injuring  themselves. 
They  were  signing  the  death-warrants  of  above  thirty 
fellow  creatures. 

The  above  incident  shows  also  at  what  light  value 
the  prince  regarded  truth.  This  was,  unfortunately 
with  him,  more  a  rule  than  the  exception,  and  the 
pledging  of  his  word  was,  in  his  eyes,  no  sacred 
thing.  At  the  very  time  above  noticed  of  the  visit 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  that  unhappy  individual  was 
accompanied  by  his  illegitimate  brother,  the  Abbe 
St.  Phar.  They  were  once  assembled  with  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  other  personages  of  quality, 
when  the  abb^,  to  exhibit  some  specimens  of  his 
power  over  fish,  had  to  stoop  low  down  to  some 
water.  This  he  did  not  do  till  he  had  exacted  a 
promise  from  the  Prince  of  Wales  not  to  take  advan- 
tage of  his  position,  in  order  to  play  any  tricks  upon 
him.  The  prince  pledged  his  word  not  to  molest  the 
abbd,  but  at  the  first  opportunity  he  toppled  St.  Phar 
head  over  heels  into  the  stream.  The  enraged  priest, 
on  scrambling  forth,  attempted  to  chastise  his  cruel 
assailant,  and  the  prince  only  escaped  by  taking  to 
his  heels. 

* "  Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  the  Marquis  of  Cornwallis." 
—  Note  by  C.  Ross,  Esq.,  in  loc. 


54©       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

He  might  have  consoled  himself  by  reflecting  that 
Coeur  de  Lion  had  once  run  away  from  a  peasant  in 
Sicily,  and  therefore  he  might,  without  disgrace, 
escape  as  he  best  could  from  the  wrath  of  a  semi- 
Bourbon  priest.  Not  that  he  was  not  occasionally 
menaced  by  less  noble  persons  whom  he  was  wont  to 
insult.  Thus  Mr.  Sumner,  a  member  of  Parliament, 
was  always  spoken  of  by  him  with  some  unpleasant 
phrase,  which  so  annoyed  the  legislator,  that  he  ex- 
hibited a  thick  stick  to  "  Jack  Payne,"  the  prince's 
confidant,  and  bade  him  tell  "his  master"  that  he 
would  knock  him  down  for  his  insolence  whenever 
he  had  an  opportunity.  Such  little  respect  did  men 
then  pay  him  ! 

The  forfeiture  of  that  pleasant  tribute  from  gentle- 
man to  prince  was  a  consequence  of  his  own  conduct. 
How  could  Fox  ever  have  a  rag  of  deference  left  for 
his  pupil  after  the  latter  had  married  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert,  and  had  coolly  denied  the  fact  to  Fox,  and 
bade  him  deny  it,  on  authority,  in  the  face  of  the 
House  of  Commons  ?  With  regard  to  the  supreme 
defect  in  the  character  of  the  prince.  Lord  Holland 
was  himself  once  sorely  perplexed.  Sheridan  had 
informed  him  that  (at  a  certain  crisis)  he  had  written 
for  the  prince  one  of  those  letters  which  were  in- 
tended to  pass  for  the  prince's  own.  In  an  imme- 
diate interview  which  took  place,  the  prince  told  Lord 
Holland  that  he  himself  had  entirely  composed  the 
letter  in  question,  and  appealed  to  Sheridan  if  such 
was  not  the  fact.  The  latter  only  politely  and  silently 
bowed.  "  I  could  not,  for  the  soul  of  me,  tell  which 
was  the  liar ! "  is  the  exclamation  of  Lord  Holland. 
He  knew  them  both  so  thoroughly. 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  541 

The  worst  of  the  prince's  vices  came,  I  think,  of 
his  drinking ;  and  in  this  vice  he  instructed  his  next 
brother,  York.  In  Lord  Cornwallis's  memoirs, 
there  is  a  letter  from  General  Grant  to  my  lord, 
written  in  1788.  In  this  the  general  states  that  at 
the  Irish  Club  the  young  prince  and  the  young  duke 
reciprocally  obliged  each  other  —  York  learning  from 
the  prince  to  drink  copiously,  and  the  prince  learning 
from  the  duke  to  gamble  recklessly.  Walpole,  too, 
records  a  dinner,  at  which  "prince  and  duke  *  drank 
royally.'  '*  Major-General  Granville  writes  to  Lord 
Cornwallis :  "  We  (meaning  the  Duke  of  York)  are 
totally  guided  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  thoroughly 
initiated  into  all  the  extravagance  and  debaucheries 
of  this  most  virtuous  metropolis  ; "  and  Lord  Bulkeley, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Marquess  of  Buckingham,  informs 
his  correspondent  that  the  princes  attend  Beefsteak 
Clubs,  Freemasons'  gatherings,  and  other  popular  as- 
semblages, simply  to  make  proselytes.  At  Brookes' s, 
the  Duke  of  York  is  described  as  attending  every 
night.  "The  *  hawks,' "  says  the  major,  "pluck  his 
feathers  unmercifully,  and  have  reduced  him  to  the 
vowels  I.  O.  U."  The  prince,  too,  is  portrayed  as 
"  taking  kindly  to  play." 

The  prince's  fraternal  instructor  set  no  good  ex- 
ample of  paying  his  losses.  Keatinge,  an  Irish 
member,  once  actually  reminded  the  duke  that  he 
owed  him  money  lost  at  cards,  asking  at  the  same 
time  that  the  debt  of  honour  might  be  acquitted.  The 
duke  did  send  him  a  cheque,  and  Keatinge  wrote 
back  in  reply  : 

"  Now  is  the  winter  of  our  discontent 
Made  glorious  summer  by  the  sun  of  York." 


542       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

At  which  familiarity  York  laughed  heartily.  For 
half  as  much,  the  prince  would  have  dismissed  the 
dearest  friend  he  had.  But  therein  lay  two  of  the 
most  marked  characteristics  of  the  two  brothers  — 
York  never  abandoned  a  friend,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
broke  friendships  with  the  greatest  alacrity. 

Neither  of  these  princes  understood  the  real  value 
and  purpose  of  money.  The  duke  once  gave  the 
"  Health  of  Mr.  Coutts,  who  has  been  my  banker 
for  thirty  years."  That  gentleman  replied  to  the 
honour  by  saying,  "I  beg  your  Royal  Highness's 
pardon,  it  is  your  Royal  Highness  who  has  done  me 
the  honour  to  keep  my  money  for  thirty  years." 

The  only  profit,  indeed,  that  we  derive  from  the 
vices  of  these  illustrious  personages,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  smart  sayings  to  which  they  gave  rise.  Thus, 
Lord  Lewisham,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  once 
gave  a  dinner  to  the  prince,  at  which  there  was  some 
very  hard  drinking.  In  this  condition  the  tipsy  guests 
took  to  talking  of  matrimony.  The  prince  said  "  he 
envied  the  Dukes  of  Devon  and  Rutland,  who,  though 
high  and  mighty  princes  too,  had  been  at  liberty  to 
wed  two  charming  women  whom  they  liked ;  but,  for 
his  part,  he  supposed  he  should  be  forced  to  marry 

some   ugly   German    b ; "    I    forget    the    other 

letters  of  the  word  ;  and  then  turning  to  the  Irish 
master  of  the  rolls  (Rigby),  asked  what  he  would 
advise  him  to  do  ?  *'  Faith,  sir,"  said  the  master, 
"I  am  not  yet  drunk  enough  to  give  advice  to  a 
Prince  of  Wales  about  marrying."  "  I  think,"  says 
Walpole,  who  tells  the  story,  "this  is  one  of  the 
best  answers  I  ever  heard ; "  and  he  well  adds  the 
query,    "  How    many    fools    will    think    themselves 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  543 

sober  enough  to  advise  his  Altesse  on  whatever  he 
consults  them  ? " 

The  habit  of  drinking  was  followed  or  attended  by 
the  unprincely  habit  of  ill-speaking.  The  prince  swore 
like  the  young  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  and  she,  it  will 
be  remembered,  swore  like  a  whole  squadron  of  drag- 
oons. "  Those  d — d  fellows  !  "  was  the  polite  phrase 
by  which  he  designated  the  House  of  Lords  and  the 
faithful  Commons.  When  a  deputation  of  these  great 
personages  was  once  assembling  at  Carlton  House, 
and  waiting  to  see  the  prince,  he  asked  Michael 
Angelo  Taylor,  **  Are  these  fellows  come  t "  *'  Yes, 
sir,  some  of  them,"  answered  Taylor.  "Some  of 
them  !  "  growled  his  Highness,  "  d — n  them  all !  " 
On  this  last  occasion,  there  was  some  political  irri- 
tation connected  with  the  expletive,  but  the  prince 
employed  it  on  small  provocation.  When  shoe- 
buckles  were  in  fashion,  he  ridiculed  Lord  Essex 
for  returning  from  Paris  with  shoe-ties.  Lord  Essex 
remarked,  that  in  six  months  the  prince  would  be 
himself  wearing  ties  in  his  shoes  instead  of  buckles. 
It  was  a  small  matter,  but  the  prince  was  pleased  to 
be  so  energetic  as  to  say,  "  I'll  be  d — d  if  I'm  ever  so 
effeminate."  Small  rudenesses  were  also  practised  by 
"  the  first  gentleman  "  of  his  day,  as  readily  as  he 
uttered  strong  expletives.  In  1787,  after  the  motion 
was  withdrawn  for  the  payment  of  his  debts,  when 
Pitt  had  promised  to  set  the  prince  at  ease,  but  was 
resolved  that  he  should  not  be  able  to  give  much 
trouble,  the  minister  sent  a  message  to  him  by  Lord 
Southampton,  in  order  to  make  some  explanation  on 
the  subject ;  "  but,"  says  Lord  Cornwallis,  "  a  warm 
answer  was  given,  that  he  did  not    receive  verbal 


544       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

messages,  and  that  if  the  minister  had  any  business 
with  him,  he  should  come  himself  ! " 

One  especial  mark  of  unmanliness  about  him  was 
in  the  readiness  with  which  he  was  moved  to  tears. 
Moore,  who  was  so  fascinated  by  him  at  first,  informs 
us  that  when  Lord  Moira  took  leave  of  him,  on  the 
noble  lord's  departure  from  England,  the  prince  fairly 
"  blubbered  "  at  the  thought  of  being  deserted  in  his 
need  by  his  old  friend  —  who,  by  the  way,  made  the 
matter  more  risible  by  a  solemn  assurance  that  he 
would  certainly  come  back  and  sink  with  his  master 
under  the  ruins  of  the  throne  !  It  was  not  mere  sen- 
timent, healthy  or  sickly,  that  inspired  the  solemn 
shower.  The  prince  cried  at  everything.  When 
Brummel  once  found  fault  with  the  cut  of  his  coat, 
the  august  wearer  of  it,  himself  an  amateur  tailor,  sat 
down  and  wept  bitterly. 

And  yet  no  man  had  in  him  a  stronger  sense  of 
the  humourous !  His  power  of  mimicry,  or,  as  the 
elder  Charles  Mathews  would  have  said,  of  imitation, 
was  very  great.  He  could  not  only  take  off  Lord 
Thurlow  to  the  life,  but  invent  capital  stories  where- 
with to  heighten  the  imitation,  and  could  even  look 
as  wise  as  that  chancellor, — which  was  said  to  be  a 
much  more  difficult  thing  to  accomplish  than  it  was 
to  be  as  wise. 

This  habit  of  mimicry  clung  by  him  to  the  last,  as 
the  readers  of  "  Raikes's  Journals "  will  remember. 
That  joumaUst  states  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
told  him  how,  on  being  summoned  to  Brighton  to 
form  an  administration,  he  found  the  king  half 
dressed,  and  rather  dirty,  in  bed,  and  how  he  amused 
the  duke  by  describing  the  visits  of  resignation  he 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  545 

had  just  had  from  the  outgoing  ministers,  whose 
voices,  manners,  and  salient  characteristics,  the  sov- 
ereign imitated  with  a  ludicrous  fidelity,  that  caused 
actor  and  spectator  to  indulge  in  explosive  hilarity. 

The  prince  enjoyed  this  power  in  others  quite  as 
much  as  he  did  the  practice  of  it  himself.  There  was 
a  time  when,  as  Lord  Cornwallis  remarked,  with  some 
scornful  disregard  of  Lindley  Murray,  "  there  was  not 
a  more  violent  Foxite  than  him  in  the  kingdom." 
This  was  written  in  1784,  when,  as  at  many  other 
periods.  Fox's  servant,  Basilico,  used  to  attend  with 
his  master  when  the  latter  was  staying  with  the 
prince.  On  one  of  these  occasions,  the  latter  was 
especially  delighted  by  a  bit  of  acting  on  the  part  of 
Basilico,  which  was  admirably  imitated  by  the  prince 
before  the  company  to  whom  he  related  the  circum- 
stance. This  consisted  in  the  lackey's  saying  to  him  : 
"I  have  had  de  honour,  sare,  of  being  at  Windsor. 
I  have  seen  your  fader.  He  look  as  well  as  ever." 
And  these  words  were  whispered  confidentially,  with 
a  rueful  face,  which  the  prince  repeated  with  as 
bad  taste  as  the  lackey  had  rendered  them  with 
impudence. 

Want  of  taste  in  many  other  things  painfully  dis- 
tinguished him.  He  at  one  time  seriously  proposed 
to  dress  all  naval  officers  in  red  breeches  and  waist- 
coats !  To  the  remonstrance  made  against  this  bar- 
barism, he  replied  with  the  old  expletive  tacked  to 
a  sweeping  criticism  :  <*  D — n  'em,"  said  the  prince, 
"  dress  'em  as  you  will,  they'll  never  look  like  gentle- 
men ! "  Such  was  the  taste  of  the  man  who  would 
spend  hours  watching  Brummel  at  his  toilet ;  who 
created  rolled  neckcloths,  first  built  the  high  coat- 


546       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

collar,  introduced  deportment,  and  (as  Mr.  Thackeray 
gratefully  remarks)  invented  Brighton. 

As  a  lover,  the  first  gentleman  of  his  day  does  not 
appear  to  advantage.  Artists  of  the  next  century 
may  perhaps  be  able  to  lend  a  picturesque  and  poet- 
ical aspect  to  the  moonlight  landing  of  young  Perdita 
Robinson  in  Kew  Gardens ;  but  it  will  only  be  when 
the  subsequent  meanness  of  the  youthful  adorer  is 
forgotten.  The  pretty  piece  of  mischief  was  led  to 
the  prince  by  his  younger  brother,  York ;  and  when 
that  tremendous  institution,  "society,"  occupied  itself 
with  this  matter,  the  most  gossiping  member  of  it 
was  lenient.  "I  make  the  greatest  allowances," 
says  Horace  Walpole,  "for  inexperience  and  novel 
passions." 

Perdita,  in  her  memoirs,  speaks  of  meeting  at  the 
Pantheon  with  the  celebrated  beauty,  Mrs.  Grace 
Elliott.  She  little  thought  that  this  latter  lady  was 
an  especial  favourite  with  the  prince,  who  seems  to 
have  transferred  her  with  his  bonds  to  the  protection 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Anything  less  romantic  and 
more  business-like  can  hardly  be  imagined.  Grace 
Elliott  passed  into  such  complete  oblivion,  till  her 
autobiography  was  recently  published,  that,  on  the 
appearance  of  that  singular  work,  its  authenticity  was 
for  a  moment  doubted.  If  the  blood  of  this  Prince 
of  Wales  be  ever  worth  tracing  up  to  himself,  this 
curious  volume  alone  will  throw  light  on  that  genea- 
logical pastime.  The  daughter  of  the  prince  and 
Grace  Dairy m pie  Elliott  married  into  a  ducal  family 
of  England.  As  far  as  beauty  is  concerned,  she  even 
excelled  her  almost  matchless  mother,  with  whose 
picture,  at  Haughton,  by  Gainsborough,  the  prince 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  547 

became  enamoured  before  he  had  seen  the  then 
peerless  original. 

Where  a  spark  of  sentiment  was  connected  with 
these  transient  attachments,  they  may  be  looked  on 
with  some  of  the  leniency  liberally  awarded  to  the 
first  of  them  by  Horace  Walpole.  There  were  other 
cases  where  the  friendship  expressed  reflected  dis- 
credit on  the  taste  of  the  prince.  There  were  several 
in  which  the  homage  paid  brought  less  discredit  on 
him,  than  public  scorn  and  reprobation  on  the  hus- 
bands of  the  ladies  who  profited  by  the  infamy  of 
their  wives. 

Then  to  his  wives  —  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and  Caroline 
of  Brunswick  —  he  was  but  the  sorriest  of  husbands. 
With  the  former,  there  was,  at  least,  some  wooing, 
but  the  beautiful  widow  prevailed  over  all  rivals, — 
though  it  had  an  insupportably  ridiculous  aspect. 
He  was  then  divided  between  her  and  the  bottle, 
like  Joan  of  Kent  herself.  To  the  first  homage 
offered  she  was  coy,  really  had  no  honest  relish  for 
it ;  but  the  man  who  was  in  the  habit  of  bleeding 
himself,  that  he  might  wear  an  interesting  look  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Cynthia  of  the  minute,  was  not  to  be  eas- 
ily foiled.  He  threatened  to  have  recourse  to  all  sorts 
of  improper  extremities,  and  Moore  records  his  ten- 
dency toward  suicide,  when  lying  a-bed,  sick  of  love, 
he  fired  a  pistol  through  the  head  of  the  bed  itself. 
He  went  further  than  this  on  the  present  occasion.  He 
did  actually  fetch  blood  by  stabbing,  or  pricking  him- 
self in  the  side.  While  the  blood  was  flowing,  he 
despatched  a  couple  of  lords  and  two  plain  esquires, 
to  entreat  the  lady  to  come  and  look  upon  him  with 
feelings  of  compassion.     If  woman  was  ever  to  dis- 


548        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

play  the  quality  of  tenderness,  it  must  be  now,  when 
a  dying  prince  —  a  prince  dying  for  her  —  petitioned 
for  a  look  of  favour.  Accordingly,  to  save  his  life, 
she  visited  the  quasi-moribund  lover,  and  engaged  to 
espouse  him.  Lord  Stourton  asked  her,  subsequently, 
if  she  were  satisfied  of  the  prince's  peril  and  sincerity. 
How  should  she  not  be,  since  she  had  been  permitted 
to  "  see  the  scar  frequently,"  and,  as  she  conclusively 
added,  "there  was  some  brandy  and  water  near  his 
bedside  when  she  was  called  to  him  on  the  day  he 
wounded  himself ! " 

A  year  intervened  before  the  strange  marriage  of 
these  opposite  parties  was  solemnised ;  the  ardent 
prince  accelerating  it  by  a  monster  love-letter  of 
seven  and  twenty  pages,  —  the  chief  ingredient  in 
which  must  have  been  the  assurance  that  the  writer's 
sire,  George  III.,  would  not  oppose  the  secret  union  ! 
How  the  prince  himself,  subsequently,  denied  its  ex- 
istence, and  how  faithless  he  was,  even  when  feigning 
loyalty,  are  matters  too  well  known  to  authorise  me 
to  dwell  upon,  even  if  I  had  space,  and  corresponding 
inclination. 

But  if  the  incidents  of  this  wooing  were  ridiculous, 
and  the  marriage  was  romantic,  yet  the  whole  story 
is  relieved  from  contempt  by  the  sentiment  which 
pervades  it.  The  lady,  especially,  is  above  all  re- 
proach, save  for  consenting  to  save  the  prince's  life 
by  marrying  him.  In  the  eye  of  the  law  alone  the 
marriage  was  invalid  ;  and,  therefore,  when  at  a  future 
period  a  proposal  was  made  to  the  prince  to  marry 
Caroline  of  Brunswick,  he  readily,  or  indifferently, 
assented,  —  simply,  because  the  condition  was  the 
payments  of  his  debts.     He  had  never  beheld  that 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  549 

luckless  lady ;  liked  her  less  than  he  had  hoped  to  do 
when  his  "  favourite  "  Lady  Jersey  escorted  her  to  the 
palace ;  and  he  stumbled  toward  her,  at  the  altar, 
brimful  of  brandy  and  disgust. 

For  the  consequences  of  this  ill-advised  match,  the 
married  couple  themselves  should  be  the  last  to  be 
censured.  Far  indeed  are  they  from  being  worthy 
to  be  called  blameless ;  but  for  the  devilish  hatred 
which  they  maintained  one  toward  the  other,  for  the 
malice  with  which  the  one  persecuted,  and  the  reck- 
lessness with  which  one  dishonoured,  the  other,  they 
are  most  responsible  who  made  that  execrable  mar- 
riage inevitable.  Least  blamable  of  all,  perhaps, 
was  the  unhappy  woman,  for  ever  flung  into  a  posi- 
tion in  which  she  was  too  impetuous  to  meet  its 
requirements  with  dignity. 

The  child  of  that  marriage,  the  Princess  Charlotte 
of  Wales,  had  only  the  capricious  affections  of  her 
father  to  make  tolerable  a  childhood  and  youth, 
which  by  nature  she  could  have  thoroughly  enjoyed. 
It  is  a  singular  fact,  as  we  learn  from  Mr.  Langdale's 
"  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,"  that  the  princess  had 
recourse  to  that  lady,  to  protect  her  from  the  severity 
of  her  own  father ! 

I  am  happy  to  be  enabled  to  add  that  that  father 
was  not  altogether  heartless,  that  tender  sentiment 
did  not  altogether  perish  within  his  breast,  and  that, 
after  years  of  a  discreditable  life,  he  showed  that, 
through  them,  he  had  preserved  (to  and  for  himself) 
an  avowal  of  his  attachment  to  his  first  wife.  He 
possessed  a  portrait  of  her,  which  he  valued  greatly ; 
it  was  with  him  on  his  death-bed,  when  he  perused, 
with  strong  emotion,  the  request  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 


550       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

to  be  permitted  to  attend  on  him  in  that  extremity ; 
and  suspended  round  his  neck  by  a  silver  chain,  it 
went  with  him  to  the  grave. 

This  is  a  redeeming  trait ;  the  prince  to  whom  it 
appUes  would  have  required  no  apologist,  had  he  not 
from  early  life  been  condemned  to  be  an  idle  man. 
Universally,  in  whatever  grade  of  life,  the  idle  man  is 
the  devil's  man.  Idleness  was  imposed  upon  him. 
He  was  condemned  to  it.  It  was  not  of  his  seeking. 
Indulgence  in  it  led  to  all  his  errors.  In  his  nonage 
he  was  fond  of  sitting  in  the  House  of  Commons,  to 
listen  to  the  debates,  and  thence  learn,  both  theoreti- 
cally and  practically,  the  history,  the  nature,  and  the 
workings  of  the  constitution.  He  would  sit  there 
for  five  hours  together.  Some  jealous  members  took 
umbrage  at  the  presence  of  this  knowledge-seeking 
lad ;  and  his  political  studies  were  abolished  for  ever. 
In  his  father's  cabinet  he  met  with  equal  obstruction  ; 
and  then,  turning  from  the  science  of  governing  the 
world  to  that  of  ruining  himself,  he  fell  into  bad 
hands,  to  men  who  dragged  him  into  pollution,  to 
friends  who  plucked  him  at  play,  and  to  farriers 
(type  of  other  tradesmen)  who  presented  him  with 
bills  for  shoeing  horses,  to  the  amount  of  ;£40,ooo. 

Thence,  perhaps,  it  came,  that  in  his  difficulties  he 
manifested  himself  more  as  a  political  intriguer  than 
a  statesman.  Lord  Comwallis  has  shown  how  he  was 
addicted  to  the  furthering  of  political  jobs,  and  apply- 
ing for  appointments  for  protdg^s  whose  advancement 
had  been  previously  sold.  Of  his  own  rights  he  had 
an  incorrect  idea,  and  could  not  even  express  that  in 
more  than  tolerable  English.  In  1789,  May  30th, 
the  prince  writes  to  Lord  Cornwallis,  from  Carlton 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  551 

House :  "  How  things  have  chang'd,  and  what  a 
chequered  scene  of  Life  I  have  been  oblig'd  to  go 
thro'  for  the  last  six  months !  Ere  this,  I  suppose 
you  will  have  heard  of  the  King's  Indisposition,  and 
how  the  Minister  attempted  to  destroy  my  Rights, 
bent  to  deprive  every  other  individual  of  our  family 
of  the  common  liberties  and  rights  of  Englishmen. 
Supported  I  have  been  by  some  real  and  true  friends, 
at  the  head  of  whom,  your  Friend,  my  Brother,  stood 
foremost,  w^  has  gained  immortal  Honour.  .  .  . 
Everything  has  fallen  into  very  different  hands. 
The  King  is  convalescent,  that  is  to  say,  he  cer- 
tainly is  better,  everything  is  thrown  into  the  hands 
of  the  Queen,  every  Friend  y*  supported  me  and  the 
common  cause  of  Succession  in  the  Family  if  they 
had  any  place  have  been  dismissed  .  .  .  they  have 
had  the  Insolence  to  threaten  the  Duke  of  York  with 
taking  his  Regiment  of  Foot  Guards,  and  when  they 
at  last  did  not  dare  do  that,  they  have  brought  officers 
into  his  Regiment,  and  committed  toward  him  every 
species  of  Indignity,  to  force  him  to  resign,  w^  he  has 
had  prudence  and  coolness  sufficient  as  well  as  firm- 
ness enough  to  resist,  not  only  those  great  Officers, 
but  numberless  of  a  lower  class  whose  sole  dependence 
in  life  and  sustenance  depend  upon  their  Places,  have 
been  disgracefully  dismissed  from  their  offices  for 
their  disinterested  support  of  me  and  our  Family. 
.  .  .  However,  the  very  precarious  nature  of  the 
King's  health  renders  some  People  a  little  upon 
their  guard  who  are  not  driven  to  a  state  of  despair, 
such  as  not  only  pervades  the  Minister  himself,  but 
his  Adherents  in  general." 

At  a  later  period,  in  1790,  Lord  Sydney  writes  to 


552        THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

Cornwallis :  "  The  Prince  of  Wales  is  taking  all  pos- 
sible pains  to  form  a  strong  party  against  the  gov- 
ernment. He  affects  a  great  regard  for  the  king. 
The  queen  is  held  out  as  the  object  of  the  most 
inveterate  as  well  as  the  most  ungenerous  and  un- 
deserved abuse.  His  Royal  Highness  governs  his 
two  brothers  (the  Dukes  of  York  and  Clarence). 
Another  (Prince  Edward,  afterward  Duke  of  Kent) 
has  lately  returned  post  from  Geneva,  but  is  going 
to  Gibraltar." 

At  a  period  of  another  political  difficulty,  his  insta- 
bility is  rather  vindictively  described  by  Moore,  who 
in  1812  writes:  "There  is  no  knowing  what  the 
prince  means  to  do ;  one  can  as  little  anticipate  his 
measures  as  those  of  Buonaparte;  but  for  a  very 
different  reason ;  I  am  sure  the  powder  in  his  Royal 
Highness's  hair  is  much  more  settled  than  anything 
in  his  head,  or  indeed  heart,  and  would  stand  a  puff 
of  Mr.  Percival's  much  more  stoutly."  He  had  spirit, 
however,  when  too  hard  pressed.  It  was  the  threat 
of  Grey  and  Grenville  to  ride  rough-shod  through 
Carlton  House,  which  led  to  his  sending  for  Liver- 
pool, and  the  establishing  of  an  extended  career  of 
often  assailed  but  long  unshaken  Toryism. 

The  worst  feature  in  the  character  of  George 
Augustus  was  that  of  his  want,  not  merely  of  duty, 
but  of  decency,  as  a  son.  The  heavy  affliction  which 
fell  upon  the  old  king  never  affected  him,  except  in 
a  disposition  to  deny  the  recurring  prospects  of  his 
father's  recovery.  On  these  occasions  he  spoke  with 
unpardonable  coarseness.  He  exhibited  strange  in- 
delicacy when  assuming  control,  accompanied  by 
much  confusion,  during  his  father's  attacks ;  and  he 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  553 

reported  the  worst  features  of  the  case,  rudely  and 
without  caution,  to  the  queen.  When  festivals  were 
held  to  celebrate  the  temporary  improvement  in  the 
king's  health,  he,  and  not  he  alone,  did  his  best  to 
mar  them.  When  the  decaying  monarch  was  mourn- 
ing over  the  death  of  the  best  loved  of  his  daughters, 
Amelia,  and  was  composing  programmes  for  the  con- 
certs of  ancient  music,  made  up  of  all  subjects  from 
the  old  masters  referring  to  blindness,  and  concluding 
with  Jephthah's  Lament  for  his  Daughter,  the  Prince 
of  Wales  was  making  of  Carlton  House  the  locality 
of  the  most  gorgeous  and  disorderly  fete  that  ever 
celebrated  the  attainment  of  power.  He  spoke  in 
the  public  streets,  says  Lord  Malmesbury,  more  like 
an  opposition  member  of  Parliament  than  the  heir 
apparent ;  and  on  one  occasion,  when  the  king  passed 
in  procession  through  the  streets,  there  were  agents 
of  the  prince  stationed  to  shout  —  not  for  the  father, 
but  the  son. 

No  amount  of  provocation  could  justify  conduct 
such  as  this.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  little  con- 
ception of  the  vindictiveness  of  the  king  toward  his 
erring  son.  That  vindictiveness  culminated,  when 
the  sovereign  once  intimated  to  Sir  George  Rose 
(who  has  recorded  the  alleged  fact  in  his  diary)  that 
there  was  one  coward  in  his  family,  but  he  would  not 
mention  his  name,  because  he  was  to  succeed  him  ! 
The  king's  mind  was  at  that  time  unsettled,  or  he 
would  never  have  uttered  a  speech  so  absurd  in  its 
manner  of  expression,  and  so  entirely  unsupported  by 
proof.  Whenever  the  prince  had  been  desirous  to 
display  his  courage  in  the  field,  he  had  always  been 
contemptuously  set  aside.     The  prince  is  open  to  so 


554       THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PRINCES  OF  WALES 

much  reproach,  that  this  calumny  can  only  be  met 
with  all  the  more  energetic  protest.  There  may  have 
been  among  the  Brunswick  princes  some  who  had  not 
head  to  dispose  the  bloody  chances  of  a  field ;  but 
there  never  was  one  who  lacked  stomach  for  a  fight, 
or  who,  being  in  it,  wanted  heart  to  meet  its  perils 
with  the  dignity  of  valour. 

There  remains  very  much  more  to  be  said  with 
regard  to  the  character  of  this  prince,  —  character 
which  had  its  fair  as  well  as  its  sombre  aspects ;  and 
this  I  may  one  day  show  when  I  have  more  space 
than  is  here  left  me,  at  my  disposal.  I  will  terminate 
by  recording  a  proof  of  his  early  good  impulses,  as 
told  by  Lady  Donegal  to  Moore,  showing  how  the 
prince  came  down  disguised  to  Lord  Donegal's  house, 
with  ;£i,ooo  in  his  pocket,  which  he  gave  to  Lord 
Spencer  Hamilton,  then  threatened  with  arrest.  To 
Lord  Edward  Bouverie,  when  in  difficulties,  he  made 
the  same  gift.  These  impulses  had  left  him  after  he 
had  been  in  contact  with  the  worst  side  of  the  world, 
and  when  his  old  associates  in  jollity  sorely  needed 
succour. 

With  this  record  of  the  early  healthy  impulses  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  I  take  my  leave  of  readers  whose 
patience  I  may  have  already  too  severely  tested,  and 
whose  indulgence  I  solicit  with  respect,  and  with  con- 
fidence bom  of  experience.  I  will  only  express  a 
hope  that  it  may  be  long  before  an  author  has  to  add 
another  to  the  roll  of  princes  given  in  this  volume ; 
and  that,  when  that  time  comes,  he  may  have  to 
record  the  career  of  one  braver  than  the  bravest  in 
my  list ;  happier  than  the  happiest ;  the  promise  of 
whose  youth  was  kept  in  his  manhood  ;  whose  friend- 


GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  FREDERICK  555 

ships  were  those  which  the  severest  might  approve ; 
whose  faults  —  for  princes  are  human  —  were  venial 
in  themselves,  and  lost  altogether  in  his  virtues ;  and 
whose  whole  career  afforded  another  proof  of  the 
assertion,  that  great  and  good  men  are  especially  the 
work  of  noble  mothers. 


THE    END. 


